The Potter Twins and the Philosopher's stone
by Reading-and-writing-fan
Summary: Harry and his sister Amber have always known they're different. They just didn't realise how different they were. Join them and their friends on a journey that could just mean their deaths. Sorry, the first chapter sucks a bit, but the rest will be better!
1. A very surprising birthday

**This is my very first fanfiction, so bear with me. If you have any comments, don't be afraid to review, even if it's a negative one**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter (I wish I was that awesome…)**

**Chapter 1: a very surprising birthday**

'Wake up!' said my aunt Petunia as she rapped on the door of my closet. My brother, Harry, sleeps in the cupboard under the stairs. I used to sleep there as well, until we got to big. Uncle Vernon made this closet so I would have a place to sleep.

My name, by the way, is Amber Lily Potter. My brother and I live with our aunt, uncle and cousin, Dudley, because our parents died in a car crash when we were one year old.

I hear my aunt rapping on my brother's door. 'Get up! You need to take care of the bacon. Duddy's friends will be here soon and he can't be hungry!'

When I hear aunt Petunia go to the kitchen, I get up, take my cloths and go to the bathroom to change and comb my hair. I have wavy red hair and unlike my brother's messy jet black hair, it's usually fine, even when I just came out of bed. My cloths aren't fashionable, like those most of my classmates wear, but at least I don't have to wear hand-me-downs from Dudley like Harry has to. As I'm a girl, my aunt buys worn, second-hand cloths for me, but I don't really care.

When I get downstairs, I see Harry distributing the bacon. 'How many presents are there?' demands Dudley, my spoilt, fat, cousin. He always enjoys seeing Harry and me in pain. He's the school bully and takes every chance he gets to bully us. 'Thirty-six, I counted them myself.' answers my uncle. 'Thirty-six? But last year I had thirty-seven!' 'Yes, but this year your presents are bigger.' 'I don't care!' Dudley screams. 'I want more presents!' 'Ok, how about we buy two new presents whet we're at the zoo?' aunt Petunia asks. She just cant _bear _to se her sweet little Duddykins sad. It's pathetic.

As Harry and I finish our toast, we hear the doorbell ring and aunt Petunia opening the door. We see Dudley's best friends, Piers Polkiss and Darren Kendrick, come in.

To my surprise, though, I also saw Darren's younger sister, Mila, enter. She gave me a little smile and quickly turned away.

Mila was my friend, kind of. We hang out together, but we made sure Dudley and Darren didn't know, because she would become their next target. It had been my idea, but apparently she decided we should be more open with our friendship, as Darren and Dudley would be off to Smeltings next year, while Mila, Harry and I would be going to the state school.

Strange thing is: Darren is about a year older than Mila, still they're in the same year in school. That's because Darren was born at the end of September and Mila was born eleven months later, at the end of august. Their parents don't pay much attention to them, so when Mila said she wanted to go to the state school instead of a more expensive privet school, her parents agreed.

'Mila, what are you doing here?' uncle Vernon asked. 'I wanted to come as well and my parents said I could. Oh, and they wanted me to tell you Mrs. Figg broke her leg, so she won't be able to take them,' she pointed to Harry and me,'today.' Mila and Darren lived next to Mrs. Figg, the old woman who always took care of Harry and me whenever our aunt, uncle and cousin went out to do something fun. 'Oh, no.' complained uncle Vernon. 'We could just leave them at the house or in the car.' aunt Petunia proposed. 'No, they will burn the house down. And I'm not leaving them in the car! It's brand new!' Uncle Vernon thought for a moment, than said: 'I guess we just have to take them with us.' he sighed.

Dudley, however, didn't agree with that at all. 'No, they can't come! They'll ruin everything!' 'No, they won't. We will make sure of that.' uncle Vernon said, wile glaring at us.

When we went to the car, uncle Vernon warned us not to do anything that would ruin Dudley's special day and we went off to the zoo.

When we arrived, we visited all animals, before stopping at the reptile house. Dudley was trying to get the snake to move, but it didn't work. Idiot. After a while he became bored and started bothering other animals in the reptile house. Harry and I stayed behind and looked at the snake.

'Annoying, isn't it, to have people staring at you the whole day.' Harry said to us, but the snake suddenly nodded. What the hell? Snakes don't nod. 'You can hear me?' Harry exclaimed, surprised. The snake nodded again. 'Where are you from?' I asked as I got over my surprise. The snake pointed towards a sign that said: Boa Constrictor, Brazil. 'Brazil? Is it nice there?' Harry went on. I nudged Harry. 'You have to read the entire thing, dummy. It sais: Bred in captivity.' 'Oh.' I laughed at that comment, because it was just so Harry.

'DAD, LOOK AT WHAT THE SNAKE IS DOING!' Dudley suddenly shouted and I turned around just fast enough to see Dudley charge at Harry and me before he knocked us over. He pressed his nose to the glass and suddenly both Harry and I got angry. Then the glass just vanished and Dudley fell into the water.

The snake got out and slithered over the floor to Harry and me. '_Thanks_.' we heard the snake say as it left the reptile house. We were stunned for a second, then we smiled. Unfortunately, uncle Vernon turned around and saw us. We were in _big_ trouble.

'What the hell happened! Mila asked me as the zoo workers helped my aunt and uncle with Dudley. 'I don't know.' I replied honestly. 'All I know is Dudley pushed us aside, we became mad and the glass just disappeared.' 'Wait, you became mad?' Mila asked incredulously. 'Since when do you get mad?' – Ok, hold it right there. I forgot to tell you something. I know redheads are usually very short tempered, but I'm living proof that's just a stereotype. However, my aunt and uncle only think it makes me even more of a freak. Arg, annoying. If I get mad they punish me and if I don't get mad they punish me. WHAT DO THEY WANT!

Anyway, Mila asked me why I suddenly got mad. I replied: 'You know why, they messed with Harry.' Even with my easily controlled temper, I didn't accept it when anyone messed with my twin. Mila nodded she understood. 'It's still strange, though. The glass just disappeared, it didn't even shatter!' 'I know, it's like…' I didn't get to finish that sentence, because my uncle came back out, looking furious. I know better than to talk when he is in a fowl mood like this.

When we got home, our uncle kept his word and locked both Harry and me up in our 'rooms'. They only opened the doors for two meagre meals a day. I sighed. Our life at home was bad, but life at school was almost worse. We got enough food, yes, but everyone bullied us. Harry because of his baggy clothes and broken glasses, me because of my worn, second-hand clothes. It probably wouldn't have been that big of a problem, but Dudley was the leader of the school bullies. He bullied us, thus everyone else bullied us. They knew better than to get on Dudley's wrong side. I just wished next year would be better because at least school would be Dudley-free.

**Well, I hope you enjoyed it. Let me know what you think!**


	2. Another very surprising birthday

**Hey, I'm back! I don't know when I will be able to update next, because I'm going on holiday next Friday (for three weeks) and wifi access is a bit unpredictable there. I will, however, update as soon as I can. I also decided to make chapters a bit longer than they used to be… Hope you enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own HP, JK Rowling does!**

**Chapter 2: another very surprising birthday**

* * *

When we were finally allowed out of our closets, we decided to stay on our aunt and uncle's good side. We didn't want to be locked up at our birthday, which was only a week away. Not that they were special, but we always made the best of it.

At least Mila would always find an excuse to come over and silently give us our birthday presents. We also made a card for each other and spent what little pocket money we got on a present.

When I came down from the bathroom I saw Harry standing by the front door getting the mail, but something wasn't right. He just stood there, staring at the mail. 'Harry, what is it?' I asked. 'Look, it's for us.' he said as he handed me an envelope. I looked down and just stared. The front, in very neat handwriting, read:

_Miss A. Potter  
The Makeshift Closet  
4 Privet Drive  
Little Whinging  
Surrey_

There could be no mistake. This letter was for me, but who would write to me and how did they know I where I slept?

Still stunned I walked back to the kitchen, with Harry right behind me. We gave the mail to uncle Vernon and started to open our letters.

Unfortunately, Dudley chose that moment to tear his eyes away from his food and look over to us. 'Mum, dad, look! Harry and Amber have a letter!' He walked over to us and took our letters away. He handed them to his dad, who just stared at the front, slowly turned the envelope over and we saw a seal. Immediately both uncle Vernon and aunt Petunia became extremely pale. They looked at each other and back at the envelope.

Now I really had to know what the letter said. See, I have this insatiable curiosity and this need to know stuff I'm not supposed to know. It got me in trouble on numerous occasions.

Fortunately I'm quick-witted and usually managed to talk my way out of it, at least with teachers. The teachers always cut me a lot of slack, 'cause I'm top of the class, which didn't get me anywhere with someone who wasn't a teacher.

I was also bullied because I was the smartest person in school and I guess people felt threatened. It's not like I always study, it's more like I hear it once in class, read through it once or twice and I just know everything. I also use logic to figure out things that are not in the books.

I don't really care that I get bullied for that. The reason I hate it is that Harry always sticks up for me and gets the same treatment. I guess we're just too much alike not to stick up for each other.

Suddenly, uncle Vernon stood up and threw the letters in the shredder. Damn. Now I would never know what the letter said.

'I decided you two are going to sleep in the smallest bedroom from now on. Your closets are getting a bit small. Go take your stuff upstairs. Now.' uncle Vernon said.

Dudley started to cry and complain. Where else was he supposed to put his broken toys? Spoilt brat.

During dinner Dudley still hadn't tried everything to get his room back, but nothing worked. Our aunt and uncle wouldn't budge.

Over the next few days, more and more letters came in. Our uncle burned and shredded all of them. After five days we sat in our room and talked about them.

'Someone definitely wants to talk to us.' I said. 'Yeah, and they always know where we sleep. Creepy.' Harry replied. 'You know, I think they aren't going to stop. The more our uncle tries to prevent it, the more letters come in. sometime soon, I bet we're gonna get our hands on one of those letters.'

Just then, we heard a lot of noise coming from the living room, including our uncle's scream: 'THAT'S IT! WE'RE GOING AWAY!'

As we came downstairs, Dudley said, 'Daddy's gone mad, hasn't he?' and looked tear-eyed at his mother.

Off course he didn't want to leave. Chances were, with uncle Vernon like this, he wouldn't have regular access to a tv and miss his favourite shows.

That night, we stayed at some motel off the highway.

The next morning, we heard a knock on our door. When I opened the door, I saw a staff member with an envelope. 'Are you Mr. and miss Potter?' 'Eh, yes.' I answered. He gave me a letter.

_Miss A. Potter  
Room 5b  
Seaside Motel  
Coledale_

However, before I could open it, uncle Vernon came out of the room next to mine and took the letters.

'Sorry, sir.' he told the man. 'We are being harassed by someone who thinks it's funny to send offensive letters to my niece and nephew. Just get rid of it, please.' I could hear the please was just added as an afterthought.

That day, we drove until the afternoon. Finally, aunt Petunia asked where we were going. 'Oh, I found the perfect place. A little hut on some small island in the ocean. We'll get there in a few hours.

When we arrived, it was storming. The hut looked like it was going to crack any minute now and it didn't look like it had any decent sleeping places.

Aunt Petunia and uncle Vernon went to sleep in the only bed while Dudley took the sofa. Harry and I made due with a couple of blankets and the floor. We were used to it. Unfortunately.

We talked for a long time, the wind was too loud to sleep. I almost feel asleep after a few hours, but jerked awake when Dudley's watch signalled it was midnight. I saw Harry was still asleep, so I woke him up. 'Hey, sleepyhead. Wake up! We're eleven now!' Harry suddenly sat upright and said: 'We left our cards and present's at Privet Drive!' 'Does it matter? We'll get them later. Important thing is: WE'RE ELEVEN!' I screamed the last bit, just quiet enough not to wake Dudley up.

Harry laughed at me, like he always did, and I bumped his arm. 'Shut up.' I said with a big smile on my face.

BOOM!

The whole hut shook (which wasn't in the least surprising) and aunt Petunia woke up with a scream.

BOOM!

The door almost cracked, Dudley ran to the other side of the room, uncle Vernon came downstairs holding a gun, aunt Petunia cowering behind him. Harry and I backed up a few paces, but were too shocked to actually feel scared.

BOOM!

With a crack, the door swung clean of the hinges and landed on the floor. Dudley and aunt Petunia winced.

I saw a huge man enter the hut. His face was almost completely hidden by a long, shaggy hair and a wild, tangled beard. He bent down, picked up the door and put it back into the frame.

'So, yeh gonna make a cup o' tea? It's been a long journey.' the stranger said as he sat down on the sofa, which now touched the floor. 'An' you must be Harry an' Amber.' he said happily. 'Las' time I say yeh two, yeh were only two baby's. Yeh look exactly like yer dad, with yer mom's eyes.' the giant sad, pointing to Harry. He then pointed to me and said: 'An' yeh remind me o' yer mom, same hair, same eyes.'

Uncle Vernon suddenly remembered he was holding a gun. 'I demand that you leave at once! You are braking and entering.' he bellowed.

The giant stood up, walked over to uncle Vernon, took the gun from him and bent it into a knot, like the gun was made of rubber. Than, he threw it into the corner of the room.

Uncle Vernon suddenly looked like he was gonna pee his pants and Harry and I laughed.

'Excuse me, but who are you?' I asked. The giant turned around and I took an involuntary step back. 'Yes, I haven't introduced meself. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts.' He sat back on the sofa, took out an enormous, ugly, pink umbrella and a second later, there was a roaring fire in the fireplace. The hut suddenly became a much warmer and more comfortable place.

The giant made some tea and sausages.

'Don't take anything he gives you, Dudley.' uncle Vernon warned Dudley. 'Yeh great puddin' of a son don' need fattenin' anymore, Dursley, don' worry.' Hagrid the giant said without turning. He gave us some sausages and a cup of tea. 'Sorry, but we really don't know who you are.' I said, carefully, not wanting to offend him.

'Like I told yeh, I'm Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts. Yeh'll know all about Hogwarts, o' course.' 'About what?' Harry exclaimed, surprised.

Hagrid turned around and faced us, looking shocked. 'Eh, sorry.' Harry added. 'Sorry? Why should yeh be sorry? It's them who should be sorry!' Hagrid barked.

The Dursleys shrank back into the corner of the house. 'Didn' even tell yeh where yer parents learned it all?' he added a bit more quietly. 'Learned all whan?' I asked, genuinely curious. I kind of liked this Hagrid.

'DURSLEY!' Hagrid screamed. Dudley tried even harder to hide behind his mother, an act that failed utterly. 'Do yeh mean ter tell me these two don' know anytin'… abou' ANYTHIN'?' 'Hey, my sister's top of our class.' Harry said angrily.

Hagrid just waved his hand and said: 'Abou' our world. Yer world. Yer parents' world.' 'What world?' I asked.

Hagrid turned toward the Dursleys again. 'DURSLEY!' he boomed, even more angrily than before.

'Do yeh even know about yer mom an' dad? They're famous. Both o' yeh're famous.' 'Famous? Why?' I asked, more curious than scared of this giant.

'Yeh got nerve, jus' like yer mom.' he said, admiringly. I just shrugged. 'Yeh really don' know abou' yeh parents ?' he asked again, sounding a bit desperate, as if hoping this was a bad dream. He also sounded sad, as if he felt sorry for us.

'Stop!' Apparently, uncle Vernon had mustered enough courage to speak again. My guess: he was gonna lose it again next time Hagrid got angry. 'Stop right there, sir!' uncle Vernon continued. 'I forbid you to tell them anyting!'

I was right. As Hagrid glared at uncle Vernon, he lost all his courage again. 'Yeh never told 'em? Never told 'em what was in the letter Dumbledore left fer 'em?'

'Kept what from us?' Harry asked.

'STOP! I FORBID YOU TO TELL THEM ANYTHING!' uncle Vernon yelled in near panic. 'Shut up, Dursley, before I kill yeh.' Hagrid growled, calming down a bit. 'Harry, Amber, yeh're wizards.' The hut got utterly quiet. The only sound were the wind and the sea. 'A what?' I gasped. Harry just stood there, with huge eyes and his mouth hanging open.

'Yes, a wizard.' Hagrid said as he sat down again. 'What else could yeh be? Yeh're gonna be thumpin' good'uns too, I wager, once yeh've been trained up a bit. With yeh mom an' dad bein' who they are, what else could yeh two be ?'

His hand disappeared in his pocket again, taking out two letters in the familiar yellowish envelope, addressed in emerald green ink.

_Miss A. Potter  
The floor  
Hut-on-the-Rock  
The Sea_

I pulled out the letter and read:

HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore (Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)

Dear miss Potter,  
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.  
Yours sincerely,  
Minerva McGonagall,  
Deputy Headmistress

'They await our owl? What is that supposed to mean?' I asked. 'Oh, reminds me.' Hagrid said. He took a small, real, ruffled-looking owl, a quill and a roll of parchment from his pocket, scribbled a note, rolled it up, gave it to the owl and threw it in the storm, like owl post is as normal as a telephone call.

I noticed Harry's mouth hung open and I closed it for him with a smile. He smiled back.

An angry but still ashen-faced uncle Vernon moved closer to us. 'They're not going.' Wow, uncle Vernon must me braver than I thought. Or more stupid.

As an answer, Hagrid grunted. 'I would like ter see a stupid muggle like you stop 'em.' 'A muggle?' I asked. 'Yes,' Hagrid answered, 'a muggle. Non-magic folk like 'em.' He pointed at the Dursleys. 'Too bad yeh grew up with 'em.'

'We swore we would put a stop to that rubbish when we took them in!' uncle Vernon said angrily. 'You knew? You knew all those years and you didn't tell us?' Harry demanded.

'Knew?' aunt Petunia shrieked suddenly. 'Knew? Of course we knew! How could you not be, my _perfect_ sister being who she was? My parents were so proud. I was the only one who saw she actually was a _freak_. Than she met that Potter, got married and got you two. Of course you would be freaks too. Then, they got themselves blown up and we got landed with you!' When she stopped talking, aunt Petunia was out of breath.

'Blown up? You told us our parents died in a car crash!' Harry said.

'CAR CRASH?' Hagrid roared. 'A car crash killin' Lily an' James Potter? It's a scandal! How could they not know their own story, every kid in our world knows their names!'

'Than what happened?' I asked. 'Ehm, I'd best tell yeh, I guess.' Hagrid said, sounding a bit scared. 'Some years ago, a wizard went bad. Really bad. I don' like ter say his name. No'un does.' 'Why?' I asked. 'People are too scared.' Hagrid replied. 'His name was…' Hagrid gulped, but no words came out.

'Can you write it down?' Harry suggested. 'Nah, can't spell it. All right – Voldemort.' Hagrid shuddered.

'Voldemort?' I asked.

Hagrid's eyes went wide open with fear. 'Don' say it!' he said. 'He wanted power. Got it too. any'un who stood up too him got killed. Yer mum an' dad were a great witch an' wizard. Knew No'un better. He wanted 'em on his side, but they refused. Wanted nothin' ter do with 'em. Ten years ago on Halloween, he went ter yer house an'…, killed 'em.' Hagrid said, the last few words were added in a small voice.

'Then he tried ter kill both o' yeh too. Somehow, he jus' couldn' do it. That's how yeh got yer scars. They were made by an evil curse. Yer famous because both o' yer survived. No'un else did. Took yer from the ruined house meself, on Dumbledore's orders. Brought yeh ter this lot…'

Uncle Vernon sounded like he was going to say something, but he fell silent at Hagrid's angry glare.

'What happened to Voldemort?' I asked. 'Don' say that name!' Hagrid almost squealed. 'Why would I not say it? It's not like I'm impressed by him. Besides, it's only a name.' I shrugged. Hagrid looked at me, eyes wide open in surprise. I looked back evenly. 'So, what happened to him?' I asked again, as it became apparent Hagrid had forgot all about my question.

'No'un knows. Disappeared. Vanished. Some say he died. Codswallop, in my opinion. Not enough human left in 'im ter die, if yer ask me. Some say he's still out there, bidin' 'is time. Some o' his followers came back ter our side. Came out of trances, like. Don' reckon they could've done it if he was comin' back. Most reckon he's lost his powers, too weak ter carry on. somethin' abou' yer two finished him that night. Somethin' he hadn't counted on.'Hagrid looked at us with respect and warmth.

It didn't look like Harry felt proud or pleased though. I guess he felt everyone made a horrible mistake and I couldn't quite believe it either. I mean, we have been bullied by our family our whole lives. How could we be wizards?

'Hagrid, you must have made a mistake. We can't be wizards.' Harry said, confirming my guess.

'Not wizards?' Hagrid chuckled. 'Never made things happen when yeh were scared or angry ?'

Suddenly, I thought about the glass that vanished and all the other weird things that happened to the both of us.

Apparently, Harry thought about that too, because we both smiled. Hagrid looked pleased.

Uncle Veron, however, never got down without a fight. 'We already told you they're not going.' 'And how is a big muggle like you gonna stop him?' Hagrid challenged. Uncle Vernon didn't back down this time, perhaps because he realised this was the last chance he would get to stop us. 'Stop the kids of Lily an' James Potter from goin' ter Hogwarts. Their names have been down from the moment they were born! They're off ter the finest school o' witchcraft and wizardry in the world. Seven years there and they won' know themselves. There'll be with youngsters of there own sort, fer a change, an' they'll be under the greatest headmaster Hogwarts ever had: Albus Dumbled–'

'I AM NOT PAYING FOR SOME CRACKPOT OLD FOOL TO TEACH THEM MAGIC TRICKS!' yelled uncle Vernon.

He had gone too far this time, though. Hagrid seized his pink umbrella and whirled it over his head. 'NEVER-INSULT-ALBUS-DUMBLEDORE-IN-FRONT-OF-ME!' he thundered.

He brought the umbrella swishing down through the air to point at Dudley – there was a flash of violet light, a sound like a firecracker, a sharp squeal, and the next second, Dudley was dancing on the spot with his hands clasped over his fat bottom, howling in pain. When he turned his back on them, Harry and I saw a curly pig's tail poking through a hole in his trousers.

Uncle Vernon roared. Pulling Aunt Petunia and Dudley into the other room, he cast one last terrified look at Hagrid and slammed the door behind them.

'I would appreciate it if yer didn' mention that at Hogwarts. Can't do magic, strictly speaking.' 'Sure.' Harry and I nodded.

'Well, we're gonna get up early tomorrow, fer shoppin'. Best get some sleep.' He took of his coat and threw it to us. 'Yeh can kip under that,' he said. 'There's a couple of dormice in it, so it'll probably wriggle a bit. Hope yer don' mind.'

After that I went to sleep, but I couldn't sleep for a long time. I had way too much to think about.

* * *

**So, another chapter up. Hope you enjoy this one too! Please follow and review!**

**P.S.: all extracts I literally copied from the book belong to J.K. Rowling as well. I own nothin****g. **


	3. Diagon Alley

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter**

**Also, I would like to give some credit to GriffindorGirl347, whose stories have inspired me to write this one.**

**Chapter 3: Diagon Alley**

* * *

Next morning we would be leaving for the day in order to buy school supplies. The Dursleys seemed to be glad, and so were we. However, after that we would have to go back to the Dursleys for the remaining month, before school began.

First, we ate the remaining sausages and some toast. 'So, yeh got everythin', yeh two?' Hagrid asked. When we nodded, he continued, 'Good. Le's go then.'

'How are we going to get to the shore?' Harry asked Hagrid when we were outside. Hagrid pointed to the small boat uncle Vernon had bought to get us here. 'We take the boat.' Hagrid said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

After we reached the shore, we started to walk to the train station to get a train to London (where you could, apparently, buy everything you needed as a wizard), Hagrid asked Harry and me to buy the tickets, because he didn't understand muggle money.

People stared at him on the train all the way to London. While we were on the train Hagrid kept himself busy, so Harry and I decided to take a look at the things we would need.

I unfolded the second piece of paper in the envelope and read:  
HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY  
UNIFORM  
First-year students will require:  
1. Three sets of plain work robes (black)  
2. One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear  
3. One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)  
4. One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)  
Please note that all pupils' clothes should carry name tags  
COURSE BOOKS  
All students should have a copy of each of the following:  
The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) by Miranda Goshawk  
A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot  
Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling  
A Beginners' Guide to Transfiguration by Emetic Switch  
One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore  
Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger  
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander  
The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble  
OTHER EQUIPMENT  
wand  
cauldron (pewter, standard size 2) set  
glass or crystal phials  
telescope set  
brass scales  
Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad  
PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS

When we finally got there, Harry and I kept an eye out for shops that looked like it sold wizarding equipment. None of the shops looked like they did, and Hagrid just kept walking without even looking at any of the shops. Apparently he knew where we were going.

'Look, here we are.' Hagrid said. I looked up and saw a tiny, grubby-looking pub named The Leaky Cauldron. If Hagrid hadn't said anything, I wouldn't have noticed it was there. Apparently, no one else paid any attention to it either. In fact, it looked like they couldn't even see it at all. 'Welcome to The Leaky Cauldron.'

When we walked in, the few people that were there stopped talking. Everyone seemed to know Hagrid and the old bartender asked, 'The usual, I presume, Hagrid?'

'I can't Tom. Hogwarts business.' 'Another muggle-born then? You gonna be off to school next year?' the bartender asked. When he said the last bit, he looked towards us, and only then he noticed there were two of us.

'Good Lord,' the bartender said as understanding dawned on his face. 'You can't be – you are – you must be –.' he trailed off. 'You must be Harry and Amber Potter.' he whispered a moment later.

Suddenly, the Leaky Cauldron was completely silent. Everyone turned to stare at us.

Everyone stood up at once and shook our hands. The last person was a pale young man who came forward, very nervously. One of his eyes was twitching. 'Professor Quirrell!' Hagrid said. 'Harry, Amber, this is Professor Quirrell, he will be teaching you Defence Against the Dark Arts.'

'H-H-Harry and A-A-Amber P-Potter,' stammered Professor Quirrell, grasping our hands nervously, 'c-can't t-t-tell you h-how p-pleased I am to m-meet you two. N-not that you two n-n-need it, e-eh?'

He looked like he had the nerve to actually be a teacher. I wondered what his lessons were going to look like and if the other professors would be as nervous as Professor Quirrell. Perhaps this was the best the teachers got.

When Professor Quirrell went back to his seat, Hagrid decided it had taken us long enough and we went on, to the back exit.

We walked into a small, walled courtyard, with nothing but a trash can and some weeds. Hagrid took out his umbrella and counted bricks in the wall. Than he tapped three bricks on the wall, and the stones began to slide away and formed an archway into a cobbled street that twisted and turned out of sight. It was unbelievably busy.

'Welcome,' said Hagrid, 'to Diagon Alley.' We stepped through the archway and unto the street. Children were running around and adults were walking in front of shops with broomsticks, owls and god-knows-what-else. It was amazing.

'Hagrid,' Harry said, 'how are we going to pay for this? We don't have money and uncle Vernon told us he wasn't going to pay.' I hadn't thought about that yet, but I could see a possible solution to the problem. 'Don't they have, like, a scholarship for kids who can't pay for all this?' I asked Hagrid. 'No, they don'. But yeh parents didn' leave yer with notin'. They had there gold stashed away in Gringotts. Wizards' bank. Run by goblins.' 'Wait. Goblins?' I asked. 'Yeah, yeh'd be mad ter try ter rob it, I'll tell yeh. Yeh don' mess with goblins. Gringotts is the safest place in the world fer anything yeh want ter keep safe - 'cept Hogwarts o' course.'

'So, why would you be mad to try and rob Gringotts?' I asked, curious. 'Spells and enchantments.' Hagrid answered. 'They even say there's dragons guardin' the high security vaults. An' then yeh gotta find yer way – Gringotts is hundreds o' miles under London, see. Yeh couldn' get back out even if yeh managed ter get yer hands on summat.' 'Are there dragons at Gringotts?' Harry asked. 'Well, it's what they say.' Hagrid looked a little wistful. 'Crikey, I'd like a dragon.' he said suddenly. 'A dragon?' I said. I most certainly did NOT expect THAT. 'Yeah, wanted one ever since I was a kid.' Hagrid looked even more wistful now, so Harry and I decided we'd leave him alone for now.

Instead we looked at all the shops, the things outside them and the people doing their shopping. There was Eeylops Owl Emporium – Tawny, Screech, Barn, Brown and Snowy, shops with potions ingredients, Flourish and Blotts spell books and much, much more. Several boys had their noses pressed against a window with broomsticks in it. We could hear a little of their conversation. 'Look, the new Nimbus Two Thousand, the fastest yet!'

'Here we are.' Hagrid suddenly said. We stood in front of a snowy white building that towered over the other little shops. Standing beside its burnished bronze doors, wearing a uniform of scarlet and gold was something, I assumed, was a goblin. 'Yeah, that's a goblin.' Hagrid told us quietly as we walked up the white stone steps. We walked through a second pair of silver doors into a vast marble hall. About a hundred goblins were sitting on high stools behind a long counter, scribbling in large ledgers, weighing coins in brass scales and examining precious stones through eyeglasses.

'Mornin',' Hagrid said to a free goblin. 'We need ter get some money out of Mr. and miss Potter's vault.' 'You have their key, Sir?' 'Got it here somewhere,' said Hagrid, searching his pockets. 'Got it.' said Hagrid, holding up a tiny golden key. The goblin looked at it closely. 'Seems in order.'

Hagrid leaned a little closer to the counter and said, 'I've got a letter here from Professor Dumbledore. It's about You-Know-What in vault 713.' The goblin read the letter carefully. 'Very well.' He said, handing the letter back to Hagrid.

After that a goblin by the name of Griphook led us to a cart that stood on a rails. We climbed in and were off. It was impossible to keep track of where we were going. Left, left, middle fork, left, right and so on. My eyes started to sting as the cold air rushed past them, but I still kept them wide open. Harry looked like he was experiencing the same thing.

Finally, the cart stopped beside a small door in the passage wall. Griphook took the key and opened the door. Inside was a massive amount of gold, silver and bronze coins. 'Is this all ours?' Harry asked, surprised and amazed. 'Yes, all yours'

When we piled some of it into a bag. 'The gold ones are Galleons, the silver ones are Sickles and the bronze ones are Knuts. It's seventeen Sickles to a Galleon and twenty-nine Knuts to a Sickle. That should be enough fer the year, we'll keep the rest safe here.'

And off we went again. Vault 713 had no keyhole. Griphook stroked the door gently with one of his long fingers and it opened. 'I suppose only a goblin can do that?' I asked Hagrid, who nodded.

The vault was almost empty. That was kind of an anticlimax. I expected jewels or something, but there was just a small, grubby little package at the bottom. Hagrid picked it up, the vault was closed again and we went back up.

When we stood blinking in the sunlight outside Gringotts, we didn't know where to go first with our money. 'Le's get yer uniforms.' Hagrid proposed, walking towards Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. 'Listen, Harry, Amber, would yeh mind me slipping off fer a bit? I'll meet yeh here again when yer done gettin' yer robes.' 'Sure.' I said.

Madam Malkin was a squat, smiling witch dressed in mauve. 'Ah, you need your uniforms I take it? first year at Hogwarts? Another young man is being fitted up just now, as a matter of fact. A boy with a pale face and blonde hair stood on a footstool while a second witch pinned up his long black robes. Madam Malkin stood us on stools next to him and two other witches began to pin our robes to the right length.

'Hello,' said the boy, 'are you going to Hogwarts as well?' 'Yes.' I said. 'My parents are already buying my books and other equipment. When I'm finally done here, I only have to get my wand.' I didn't exactly know what it was, but something about his voice and the way he talked made me dislike him. 'Afterwards, I'm going to take them to see some racing brooms. Stupid rule, that first years can't have their own brooms. I honestly don't see why. But, next year I'm going to get one and I'm sure I'll make the house team. I mean, I've been riding a broom practically since I was born. Do you have your own brooms?' 'No.' Harry said. 'Do you play Quidditch at all?' 'No.' Harry said again and I wondered what on earth Quidditch was. Something all wizards and witches knew, apparently. 'That's a shame. You probably won't make the house teams than. You just won't have enough experience.' The way he said it, though, told me he didn't find it a shame at all. He was just trying to be nice, probably. Trying, and failing, hard. 'Anyway, do you know what house you're going to be in yet?' 'No.' I answered, because Harry looked a little embarrassed that we didn't know all the stuff this boy was talking about. 'Well, no one knows for sure until you get there, but I know I'll be in Slytherin. My whole family was in Slytherin. Ha, imagine being in Hufflepuff. I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?' 'Well, Hufflepuff can't be _that_ bad. Don't you think it's a bit extreme to say you'll leave school?' I didn't like him at all, so instead of playing it safe and just agreeing with him, I took a chance that Hufflepuff wasn't that bad. Besides, the boy had said '_I think_ I'd leave school'.

The boy wasn't really listening anymore, though. Instead he was staring outside, to a waving Hagrid. 'God, look at that man!' 'That's Hagrid. He works at Hogwarts.' Harry said and waved back. 'Oh.' the boy said. 'I've heard of him. He's a servant of sorts, isn't he?' 'He's the gamekeeper.' Harry said. 'Yes. I heard he's a sort of savage. Lives in a hut on the grounds, gets drunk, tries to do magic and sets his bed on fire.' 'Oh, knock it of. At least he's a nice, kind person. That is _way_ more important that where you live.' I said coldly, looking him directly in the eye. 'And I think he's brilliant.' Harry added in the same tone. 'You do?' the boy sneered. 'Why is he with you? Where are your parents?' 'They're dead.' Harry said shortly. We both didn't want to get into details. 'Sorry.' the boy said, and again I was certain he didn't mean it in the slightest. 'But they were our kind, right? They weren't muggles?' 'No, they were a witch and wizard.' I replied. 'Good. They shouldn't let that other filth in, right? I mean, they don't know anything about our world! They should just keep it in the old wizarding family. What's your surname anyway?' I was about to give an icy retort, but our robes were finished. I didn't really feel like giving this prat anymore attention anyway, so we just left without answering his question.

Next we went to buy our books at Flourish and Blotts. There were books everywhere, shelves were stacked to the ceiling. Books as large as paving stones were next to books the size of postage stamps. I got all my books (and some extra, just to get to know the wizarding world a little better), but than, as I reached for the final book I needed, the Standard Book of Spells, someone else reached for it at the same time. I looked up to see it was a boy.

He had messy brown hair and hazel eyes. He actually looked kind of cute. We both retracted our arms at the same moment and both started to laugh. 'You go and get the book. I'll get the one underneath.' I proposed. 'Sure. And thanks. Are you off to Hogwarts as well?' 'Yes. We'll probably see each other around than.' I heard Harry calling my name, so I said goodbye and went back to where Harry and Hagrid were waiting for me.

We bought all kinds of ingredients for potions in the Apothecary and the telescope we would apparently need for Astronomy. 'Now, we jus' need yer wands. An' I have ter get both o' yeh a birthday present o' course.' 'No, Hagrid, you don't need to do that.' Harry said. 'I know I don' have ter do that. I want to. Tell yeh what, I'll get yer both an animal. I'll get yer an owl. they're incredibly useful, carry yer mail an' everythin'.'

A while later, we left Eeylops Owl Emporium. Harry bought a female Snowy owl. She was simply beautiful. I on the other hand liked a female Eagle owl. Both birds looked imposing and proud. 'Now, le's get your wands.' Hagrid proposed.

Ollivanders was a narrow and shabby shop. A bell rang as we stepped inside. It was quiet and no one seemed to be there.

'Good afternoon.' A voice said. Harry and I jumped. An old man was standing before us. He had grey hair and wide, pale eyes. 'Hello.' Harry said, carefully. 'Ah, Harry and Amber Potter. I was wondering when I would see you. I remember the days your parents bought their first wands. They snapped it in half when you were expelled, right?' 'Yes, but I've still got the pieces.' 'But you don't use them, right?' Hagrid looked a bit guilty. 'No, sir. O' course not.'

'So, Mr. Potter, miss Potter, let's see what we can find.' He walked to the back of the shop and came back with two wands. 'Ok, just give them a wave.' I waved my wand around, but after less than a second, the wand was snatched from my hand. This went on a few more times.

Suddenly, Mr. Ollivander stood still and muttered, 'I wonder…' He walked to a particular shelf and took two other wands out. 'Let's try these.' When I grabbed one of the wands, I didn't feel any different. Mr. Ollivander looked puzzled. 'I really thought that would be it. Maybe if you switch wands.' So, Harry and I swapped wands and immediately I felt a warm glow spreading through me.

'Wonderful, wonderful. Yes, indeed, very good! But curious, very curious indeed.'

'Sorry, but what's curious?' Harry asked. 'Well, the phoenix whose tail feather is in your wands, gave one other feather. That wand was the one that gave the two of you that scar. Very curious how these things happen. We can expect great things from the both of you, yes. After all, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did great things. Terrible, but great.'

We paid seven Galleons each for the wands, left the shop and went back to the Dursleys.

'Here's yer tickets fer Hogwarts.' Hagrid said. 'First o' September at King's Cross station. It's all on yer tickets. See yer in a month, Harry, Amber.' And with that he left.

* * *

**Thank you for reading. If any of you have comments or opinions, don****'****t be afraid to voice them. I read every comment and suggestion carefully and take them under serious consideration.**

**Reactions to reviews**

**Oracle987: Love you review! Thanks!**

**Amber R. (guest): I know George and Emily are a good couple, it****'****s just that I like Draco and Emily because they****'****re supposed to be enemies, but they****'****re in love. I also won****'****t continue my story with George as Amber****'****s boyfriend, because it****'****s not original anymore as GriffindorGirl347 already did that. I****'****m introducing an OC in the next chapter and I think he will become her boyfriend, but I****'****m open to other suggestions.**


	4. The Hogwarts express

**Well, everyone, forth chapter is here. I hope to finish the fifth chapter soon.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.**

**Chapter 4: the Hogwarts express**

Our last month with the Dursleys was better that the time before. Dudley was now too scared of us and wouldn't stay in the same room, uncle Vernon and aunt Petunia let us keep our room and didn't speak to us at all. In fact they didn't even pay attention to us and for the first time in ten years we were able to do whatever we wanted.

Harry kept to his room, usually, with the owls. Harry had decided to call her Hedwig, a name he had found in A History of Magic. I called my owl Athena, because I had always loved Greek mythology.

Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia locked our school books up in the cupboard where Harry used to sleep. That didn't stop me from reading them, though. Because I loved going places I wasn't allowed to go (and got me in trouble on several different occasions), I taught myself to pick locks.

This didn't help when Harry and I were locked up for punishment, because the locks could only be opened from the outside, but I did manage to get some books out. When I finished reading them, I put them back and got the next few out. Harry wasn't that intent on reading his books, but he decided to read some of the books he thought were interesting.

Something else that got better was that Mila and I could now spend most of our time together. Her brothers opinion didn't matter anymore because he would be going to a different school and I never cared about Dudley's. Harry also hang out with us, but he usually sat in our room or walked through Little Winging.

Mila and I avoided the subject of school, though. I gave the excuse that Harry and I were going to St. Brutus's Secure Center for Incurably Criminal Boys and Girls and that I didn't really feel like talking about it. Uncle Vernon had told that to everyone in the neighbourhood already. My real reason, obviously, was that I was forbidden to tell her about it, because of the Wizard's Law.

On the last day of August we told our aunt and uncle about getting to King's Cross station the next day. When I cleared my throat in the living room, Dudley screamed and ran (or more precisely, waggled) out of the room and both Harry and I could only just hold our laughter. 'Uncle Vernon?' Harry asked. 'We need to get to King's Cross tomorrow to get to – you know – Hogwarts. Could you take us there?' Uncle Vernon grunted. 'Thank you.' I said and Harry and I were just about to turn and get back upstairs when uncle Vernon spoke, 'Where is this school anyway?' 'I don't know.' I said. 'It just sais to take the train from platform 9¾ at eleven o'clock.' Our aunt and uncle stared. 'Platform what?' '9¾.' I answered. 'Ha! That's going to be funny! Of course we will take you there.' uncle Vernon said with an evil smile.

When we got to the station, uncle Vernon seemed to be uncharacteristically nice to us and the reason for that became apparent when he stopped at platforms nine and ten. 'No platform 9¾. Sorry.' With that he turned around and the other Dursleys left with him.

'I guess we just need to ask someone.' I said and walked up to the first guard I saw, but he practically laughed in my face. According to the clock we only had ten more minutes before the train left and we had no idea where it left form.

At that precise moment a group of people passed and I heard what they were saying, 'Keep up! This place is packed with Muggles, you will get lost!' The speaker was a plump woman who was talking to five boys and a girl. Four of the boys and the girl had flaming red hair. The fifth had brown hair. All of the boys had a trunk like Harry's and mine and one had an owl on top of it.

We looked at each other and decided to follow them. The little girl was saying, 'I want to go, mummy. Why can't I?' 'You're not old enough, Ginny. Now be quiet. Ok, Percy, you go first.' The mother answered.

The oldest boy walked toward the column in the middle of the platforms and he just seemed to vanish right when he should have crashed into it.

'Come on, Fred, you're next.' 'I'm George. Not Fred.' One of the other boys said. Apparently, he was a twin. 'Honestly, woman, you call yourself our mother?' 'Sorry, George.' When the boy started walking he said, 'Only joking, I am Fred.' and he ran to the column, his twin brother ran after him and now I could see they were, indeed, identical twins.

At that moment I decided to take matters into my own hands and try to find out what exactly was going on here. 'Excuse me.' I said as I walked towards them. 'Hello, dears. Is this your first time at Hogwarts? Ron here's new too.' 'Yes,' I said. 'We just don't know how to get onto the platform.' That was the most logical explanation for what was going on here. 'Not to worry, dears. All you have to do is walk or run at the barrier between platforms nine and ten. Just don't be scared you crash into it, that's very important.' I nodded and, obviously nervous, I started to run toward the barrier. I was trying not to feel scared. As I kept running, I didn't crash and I opened my eyes. I was standing on a huge platform with a sign overhead that said Hogwarts Express, eleven o'clock. Smoke drifted from the engine over the heads of the chattering crowd, cats of every colour ran between their legs and owls hooted to each other over the babble of the crowds and the scraping of heavy trunks. We thanked and said goodbye to Mrs. Weasley, the woman who helped us. As Harry and I walked over the platform, we heard parts of other conversations.

'Oh, Neville, did you lose your toad again –.'

'Give us a look, Lee! Come on!'

'Goodbye, mom, dad.'

'See you at Christmas!'

A lot of people were running around, until we finally found an empty compartment near the end of the train. We put our trunks away and waited until the train started to move.

After a few minutes the compartment door slid open and the redheaded boy and the brown-haired boy came in. 'Can we sit here?' the brown-haired boy asked. 'Sure.' I said. 'Do I know you?' he asked and when he said that, I recognised him as well. 'We met at the bookshop in Diagon Alley. We both tried to get the same book.' 'Oh, yeah. I remember.' he smiled and sat down in front of me as the redheaded boy sat down next to him, in front of Harry.

'I'm Ron, by the way. Ron Weasley.' the redheaded boy said. 'And this is my brother, Luke Taylor.' He pointed at the brown-haired boy.

'Hi, I'm Amber Potter, and this is my brother, Harry Potter.' I said.

'You've _got_ to be kidding me!' the brown-haired boy, Luke, said. 'So, do you have, you know…' Ron, the redheaded boy, trailed of. 'The scar.' he added, whispering. 'Oh, yes.' Harry said as he showed him the scar on his forehead and I pulled my hair back to show them the scar on the right side of my head, from my forehead to my ear.

'So that's where You-Know-Who…' Ron started, though he didn't finish the sentence. 'Ron, knock it off. I'm sure they don't want to answer all that. I'm sure it's still painful.' Luke said. 'Oh, right. Sorry.' Ron said.

'So, how about your families? You said you were brothers? And what about all the other boys on the platform with you. Are they your brothers too?' I asked in a whirlwind of questions. 'Yes,' Ron answered. 'well, everyone in my family is a wizard. I have a mum and dad, two older brothers who have already left school, Bill and Charlie, Percy is in his fifth year at Hogwarts now, Fred and George are twins, in their third year and my little sister Ginny is going to Hogwarts next year.' Ron told us. 'Wait, I thought you said you were brothers as well?' Harry asked. 'I'm… adopted.' Luke answered. 'My parents died three years ago and the Weasleys were good friends of theirs, so they took me in.' 'Oh, I'm so sorry.' I said. I felt bad for him, mostly because it had been so recent and also because he knew his parents for eight years and than lost them. 'Well, at least I got to know them. I don't have to wonder what they were like.' he told me.

We were all quiet for a minute after that.

'I heard you went to live with Muggle.' Ron finally broke the silence. 'What are they like?' 'Well, our aunt, uncle and cousin are horrible, but the others are mostly ok.' I answered. Harry added, wistfully, 'I wish we had five wizard brothers.' 'Well, we mostly have a lot to live up to. Bill and Charlie already left, but Bill was Head Boy and Charlie was Quidditch captain. Percy's a prefect and while Fred and George mess around a lot, they still get good marks and everyone at school likes them. Everyone expects us to do as well as the others, but if we do, it's no big deal, because they did it first. I also get hand-me-downs from my brothers and never anything new. I got Bill's old robes, Charlie's old wand and Percy's old rat. Luke got new stuff because mum felt she owed his parents. Percy got an owl because he became a prefect, I got Scabbers instead.' While Ron said that, he pulled a rat from his robes. 'I take it your parents don't have a lot of money.' Harry said while I jabbed him in the sides for his insensitivity. Ron went slightly pink and looked down. 'You know, Ron, it's nothing to be ashamed of. As a matter of fact, Harry used to wear Dudley's old cloths, I had to wear worn and torn second-hand cloths and we never got birthday presents, except for the occasional old (and smelly) sock. We virtually had no money until Hagrid told us we were wizards.' And Harry added, 'And until Hagrid told us, we didn't know anything about being wizards, about our parents or about Voldemort.' Ron gasped, 'You said You-Know-Who's name!' He sounded both shocked and impressed. 'I'm not being brave or something, I just didn't know I shouldn't. See? I've got loads to learn. I bet we'll be the worst in the class. Well, I will be the worst. Amber's clever, she'll get it way quicker than I will.' 'Oh, please, a lot of kids come form Muggle families. They all learn quickly enough. I bet both of you will too.' Luke said, and that seemed to ease Harry's mind a little.

We were now racing through the countryside and I just looked outside for a few minutes, when I heard the compartment door slid open. 'Can I sit here?' When I heard the voice, I immediately looked up and my mouth fell open. 'Mila?' I asked. Both Harry and Mila just stared. 'What are you doing here?' 'I was just about to ask you the same thing. I thought you two were going to St. Brutus's.' Mila said. 'But I guess that was just an excuse your uncle came up with, wasn't it.' She said 'your uncle' with obvious contempt. 'Yeah, it was. Now, I guess you also had some sort of excuse, though you didn't need to use it.' I said, grinning a little. 'Yes. My parents told the neighbourhood I was going to some kind of privet boarding school, but there was no need to tell you that, so I just decided not to when you told me you were going to St. Brutus's.' 'Well, I'm sure you can guess how the glass vanished that day in the zoo.' Now I was really grinning. 'Come and sit down. We should really catch up.'

So, after she sat down we talked for hours.

After a while a smiling, dimpled woman came in and asked if we wanted anything of the trolley. 'Sure.' I said. 'We'll take some of everything.' Harry and I paid for it, because for the first time in our lives we actually had money to buy things for ourselves and others.

The trolley was filled with all sorts of candy, none of which Harry, Mila or I knew about. Ron and Luke seemed to know them, though, so they told us what everything was.

We had a great time eating the candy. 'What are these?' I asked as I held up a pack of Chocolate Frogs. 'They're not real frogs, right?' 'No.' Ron answered. 'They're just bewitched. Besides, it's the cards you want. Every pack has a card with a famous witch or wizard. You can start collecting them if you want to. I have about five hundred, but I still haven't got Agrippa or Ptolemy.' I unwrapped the frog and picked up the card, which showed a man's face. He was old, wore half-moon glasses, had a long, crooked nose and flowing silver hair, beard and moustache. Underneath the picture it said his name was Albus Dumbledore. 'I've got Dumbledore! I didn't think he would be this old though.' I turned over the card and read:

ALBUS DUMBLEDORE

CURRENTLY HEADMASTER OF HOGWARTS

Considered by many the greatest wizard of modern times, Dumbledore is particularly famous for his

defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood,

and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel. Professor Dumbledore enjoys chamber music and tenpin bowling.

When I turned the card back over, I saw he was gone. I was astonished and said, 'He is gone!' 'Well,' Ron said, starting to unwrap a chocolate frog of his own, 'you can't expect him to hang around all day. He'll be back. Ow, I've got Morgana again. Any of you want it? You can start collecting them.' Harry took the card and I said, 'Well, in the Muggle world, people just stay put in photo's. They don't move or anything.' 'Seriously? That's bloody weird.'

The train ride went on. And on. And on. Eventually, all candy was gone and we were just sitting, when Ron suddenly asked, 'Do you want to see a spell?' Harry, Mila and I nodded, but Luke just rolled his eyes as if he had seen it all before. I guess he had. 'Ok. Fred and George told me about this spell that will turn Scabbers yellow.' He looked at the rat in his lap and took out his wand. Than he cleared his throat and said, 'Sunshine –.'

At that moment a girl and a very tearful boy came in. 'Have you seen a toad. Neville's lost his.' said the girl while she pointed at the boy. Her voice was kind of bossy, she had lots of brown hair and rather large front teeth. 'No,' I said. 'We haven't seen one.' The girl was already looking at Ron. 'Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see then.' 'Er – all right.' He cleared his throat. 'Sunshine, daisies, butter, mellow, turn this stupid fat rat yellow.' He waved his wand, but nothing happened.

'Are you sure that's a real spell?' the girl said. 'Well, it's not very good, is it? I've tried a few simple spells just for practice and it's all worked for me. Nobody in my family's magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, it's the very best school of witchcraft there is, I've heard – I've learned all our course books by heart, of course, I just hope it will be enough – I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?' She said all this very fast.

'I'm Ron Weasley.' Ron said, looking slightly stunned.

'Luke Taylor.'

'Mila Kendrick.'

'Harry Potter.'

'Amber Potter.'

'Wait. Harry and Amber Potter?' Hermione said, the bossy tone disappeared and was replaced by a surprised one. 'Are you really?' We nodded. 'I know all about you two, of course. I got a few extra books for background reading. You're in Modern Magical History, The Rise and Fall of the Dark arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century.' The bossy tone had returned. 'I know. I read them as well.' I said. Hermione looked approving. 'So, we'd best go and look for Neville's toad again.'

And they set off again.

'Whatever house she's in, I hope I'm not in it.' Ron said, sounding exasperated. 'Stupid spell.' 'I told you it was a dud. You should never listen to Fred and George if they tell you something like that.' Luke told Ron.

'What house are your brothers in?' Harry asked. 'Gryffindor.' Ron said. 'Mum and dad were in it, too. I don't know what they'll say if I'm not. I don't suppose Ravenclaw would be too bad, but imagine if

they put me in Slytherin.'

'That's the house Vol –, I mean, You-Know-Who was in?' Harry replied. I just rolled my eyes. 'Yeah.' said Ron. 'So, what house were your parents in, Luke?' I asked. 'My dad was in Gryffindor, my mum was in Ravenclaw, so I would be happy to go to either house, but I prefer Gryffindor.'

'So, what are your brothers doing now they've left school?' Harry asked Ron. 'Charlie's in Romania studying dragons and Bill's in Africa doing something for Gringotts.' Ron replied. 'So, what"s you Quidditch team?' Ron asked. I noticed how Harry and Ron mostly kept up a conversation, while Mila, Luke and I just listened. I was perfectly comfortable with it, though. 'I don't know any.' Harry said. 'What?' Ron said. 'Oh, just wait, it's the best game in the world.' Than he started explaining about the four balls and the positions of the seven players, describing famous games he'd been to and broomsticks he would like if he had the money.

Suddenly the compartment door slid open again and this time three boys entered. I recognised the middle one at once: it was the pale boy from Madam Malkin's. This time he was a lot more interested in us than he had been in Diagon Alley. 'So, is it true?' he said. 'I heard Harry and Amber Potter are in this compartment. That's you two, right?'

'Yes.' I said while I looked at the other boys. Both of them were thick, like Dudley, though they still looked quite strong and extremely mean. They looked like the pale boy's bodyguards. When he noticed where I was looking, the pale boy said, 'Oh, this is Crabbe, and this is Goyle. And I'm Malfoy, Draco Malfoy.'

Mila, Harry, Ron and I all sniggered. 'Think my name's funny, do you?' he asked Ron. 'I don't need to ask you yours. Red hair, freckles and second-hand robes? You must be a Weasley. My father told me they have more children than they can afford.' Next, he turned to Harry and me. 'You will soon find out some wizarding families are better than others. I can help you with that.' and he held out is hand.

I didn't take it, but said, 'I don't need _your_ help with that.' 'Really? So you think you can just laugh at my name without consequences if I do not consider you a friend? I do not take well to insults like that.' 'Oh, wait, you really think I think your name's funny? I was laughing at the way you introduced yourself. You sounded just like James Bond. You know: 'My name is Bond. James Bond.' Mila and Harry laughed. 'But, of course you don't know him. As a matter of fact, I shouldn't even be comparing you to him. He's a cool spy and you're an arrogant bully. Couldn't be more different.'

Draco Malfoy's cheeks became a bit more pink. 'I'd be careful if I were you, Potter. If you're not a bit politer, you'll end up like your parents. They didn't know what was good for them either. Hanging around with riffraff like the Weasleys and it'll rub off on you.' All of us stood up. 'Say that again, Malfoy, and I will make you wish you hadn't.' Harry said. Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle probably thought five against three was a bit unfair, because they turned around and left. We sat down again.

'So, you've met Malfoy before?' Luke asked. 'Yes,' I said and explained about the meeting Harry and I had with him in Diagon Alley.

'I've heard of his family.' Ron said. 'They were some of the first to come back to our side after You-Know-Who disappeared. Said they'd been bewitched. Dad doesn't believe it, though. Sais Malfoy's father didn't need an excuse to go over to the Dark Side.'

When we finally arrived a few minutes later, I started to get nervous. Harry looked nervous too, and so did Mila and Luke. Ron was looking as pale as Malfoy had been. We crammed the extra sweets in our pockets and exited the train.

When we walked out on a tiny, dark platform we heard a familiar voice: Firs' years! Firs' years over here! All righ' there, Harry, Amber?' Hagrid's big, hairy face beamed over the sea of heads. We nodded. 'All righ'! Firs' years, c'mon, follow me! Any more firs' years? Mind yer step. Firs' years follow me!' We walked for a while, slipping and stumbling in the dark, until we reached a big black lake.

'In the boats, c'mon now! No more'n four a boat!' Harry, Ron, Luke and Neville got in a boat, while Mila, Hermoine and I got in a boat with another girl we didn't know. 'Everyone in?' Hagrid shouted. He had a boat to himself. 'Righ' then, FORWARD!'

The fleet of little boats moved off all at once, gliding across the lake, which was as smooth as glass.

Than, we saw the castle. It was a majestic building. It stood on a huge cliff, black, tall and mighty. The thousands of windows were lit and there were more towers than I could count. The whole building breathed magic.

'Heads down!' Hagrid yelled as we reached the entrance of a tunnel. It seemed to be taking us right underneath the castle, until we reached an underground harbour, where we clambered out of the boats.

'Oi, whose toad is this?' Hagrid asked. 'Trevor!' Neville cried, holding out his hands. Hagrid gave the toad to Neville and we walked away from the harbour until we reached a huge, oak front door. 'Everyone here?' Hagrid asked and he raised his gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door. Now, I was really nervous, not knowing what lay beyond, and whether it would be better or worse than what I'd left behind.

**Thank you all for reading.**


	5. The start of a new life

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, no matter how much I want to.**

**Chapter 5: The start of a new life**

The door swung open. A tall, black-haired witch in emerald-green robes stood there. She had a stern face and she looked like someone you didn't want to cross.

'The firs' years, Professor McGonagall.' said Hagrid.

'Thank you, Hagrid. All right, everyone, follow me.'

We followed her inside. The entrance hall was bigger than the Dursleys' house. The ceiling was higher than I would have thought possible and a magnificent marble staircase facing us let to the upper floors. Through thick, wooden double doors we could hear the other students. We followed Professor McGonagall across the flagged stone floor and Professor McGonagall showed us into a small, empty chamber off the hall.

'Welcome to Hogwarts.' said Professor McGonagall. 'The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room. The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule breaking will lose your house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honour. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours. The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I will return when we are ready for you. Please wait quietly.'

Pretty impressive speech. It took a few seconds for everyone to think clearly again after that and when they could people started to speculate about the way you would be sorted. I saw Harry swallow, he looked even more nervous than I did.

'How exactly do they sort us into houses?' Harry asked Ron and Luke. 'Some sort of test, I guess.' Luke said and Ron added, 'Fred said it hurts a lot, but I think he was joking.'

Harry looked even more scared than before. I just rolled my eyes.

I heard Hermione mutter spells she learned over the holidays and everyone started to look more and more nervous. No one else was talking anymore.

'Oh, please, you can't honestly expect they will put us through some kind of dangerous and painful test, can you?' I didn't raise my voice, but everyone could still hear me.

'What do you think it is going to be than?' Hermione's bossy voice asked.

I shrugged. 'I'm not sure. Most likely a character assessment or something, maybe an assessment of abilities and the possibilities of those abilities.'

'And how are you proposing they do that if not by some kind of test?'

'How am I supposed to know? Anyway, they're not going to put us through some kind of dangerous test, like I told you before. They can't expect us to be good enough to do something like that yet.' I saw Hermione wanted to object so I added, 'With you as the exception, of course. But even than, the test couldn't be too dangerous.'

'All right, move along now.' a sharp voice said. 'The Sorting Ceremony's about to start.'

I looked at Hermione smugly and said, 'See, a ceremony doesn't sound too dangerous or painful.'

We walked in a disorderly line out of the chamber, back across the hall and through the double doors into the Great Hall.

It was unbelievable. That was the only word for it. The hall was lit by thousands of candles floating in midair over four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting. These tables were all glittering with golden plates and goblets. At the other end of the hall was another long table where the teachers were sitting. I couldn't see the ceiling, but I'd read, in _Hogwarts, a History_, the ceiling was enchanted to look like the night sky.

Professor McGonagall led us to the teachers' table and just in front of it stood a four-legged stool with a pointed wizard's hat. The hat was patched, frayed and extremely dirty.

Suddenly, the hat twitched and started to sing:

'_Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,_

_But don't judge on what you see,_

_I'll eat myself if you can find_

_A smarter hat than me._

_You can keep your bowlers black,_

_Your top hats sleek and tall,_

_For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat_

_And I can cap them all._

_There's nothing hidden in your head_

_The Sorting Hat can't see,_

_So try me on and I will tell you_

_Where you ought to be._

_You might belong in Gryffindor,_

_Where dwell the brave at heart,_

_Their daring, nerve, and chivalry set Gryffindors apart;_

_You might belong in Hufflepuff,_

_Where they are just and loyal,_

_Those patient Hufflepuffs are true and unafraid of toil;_

_Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,_

_if you've a ready mind,_

_Where those of wit and learning,_

_Will always find their kind;_

_Or perhaps in Slytherin_

_You'll make your real friends,_

_Those cunning folk use any means_

_To achieve their ends._

_So put me on! Don't be afraid!_

_And don't get in a flap!_

_You're in safe hands (though I have none)_

_For I'm a Thinking Cap!'_

The whole hall burst into applause as the hat finished it's song and went still again. So, Gryffindor meant bravery and chivalry, Hufflepuff meant being just and loyal, Ravenclaw meant being clever and wanting to learn and Slytherin meant being cunning and using everything you have to achieve a goal. All four houses sounded great and I thought they might all suit me, if not for the fact Ron and Luke had explained most people who went bad were in Slytherin. That probably had something to do with the ambition and using-everything-you-have-to-reach-a-goal-part, which would, in theory, include being willing to kill people. So, even though I could be cunning and would do a lot to achieve something I wanted, I didn't think I wanted to go to Slytherin.

'So, we just need to try on the hat!' Ron whispered. 'I'll kill Fred, he said we had to wrestle a troll.'

'Ron, when are you going to learn not to take everything Fred and George say seriously?' Luke asked him. 'Seriously, you've been living with them your whole life.'

Harry looked at me, concern still filled his eyes. 'How am I ever going to meet any of those requirements?' he whispered when I looked at him questioningly.

'Oh, please. It will be a close call between Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Gryffindor if you ask me. You have most of the qualities for every house.'

Professor McGonagall stepped forward with a long roll of parchment. 'When I call your name, you will sit on the stool, put the hat on and wait until you're sorted.' she said.

'Abbott, Hannah!'

A pink-faced girl with blonde pigtails stumbled out of line, put on the hat, with was too big and fell down over her eyes, and sat down.

After a moment, the hat yelled: 'HUFFLEPUFF!'

Hannah ran to the Hufflepuff table, where everyone cheered and clapped.

'Bones, Susan!'

'HUFFLEPUFF!' the hat yelled again as Susan sat next to Hannah.

'Boot, Terry!'

'RAVENCLAW!'

'Brocklehurst, Mandy!' also went to Ravenclaw and 'Brown, Lavender!' became the first new Gryffindor. 'Bulstrode, Millicent!' became a Slytherin. The way the Slytherins behaved and looked made me think even more that they were an unpleasant lot. I definitely didn't want to go there.

More people were sorted. Until, 'Kendrick, Mila!'

Mila walked to the stool nervously and sat down. After a few seconds the hat yelled: 'GRYFFINDOR!' and Mila ran to the Gryffindor table.

Neville Longbottom, the boy who kept losing his toad, also became a Gryffindor.

After a while, Draco Malfoy, the blond-haired boy from the train and the robe shop, was called. He barely had the hat on his head, when it shouted: 'SLYTHERIN!' Malfoy looked immensely pleased with himself, and so did his goons, Crabbe and Goyle, both in Slytherin as well. Now I _definitely_ didn't want to be in Slytherin.

After some more waiting and sorting the moment I had been waiting for finally arrived.

'Potter, Amber!' What I hadn't anticipated was the silence that fell when my name was called. I walked towards the stool, losing a lot of confidence along the way. When I sat down with the hat on my head, I heard a soft voice speaking to me.

'Hmm, difficult, very difficult. I see courage, cleverness, loyalty and cunning. You could be of great value to any house. I see a great desire to prove yourself, that will be invaluable in Slytherin.'

In my head, I said: _I__'__m _not_ going to Slytherin. I will leave school if I__'__m sorted in Slytherin. I__'__m _not _going to Slytherin._

The hat resumed talking, 'Well, even though you would be valuable to them, I do think the some of the other houses would be even better for you. Now, I see you will do anything for your friends and though you're clever, you won't do too well in Ravenclaw. Let's see, that leaves Gryffindor and Hufflepuff. So, I will go with…' The hat stopped a bit to think. Than it shouted:

'GRYFFINDOR!'

I stood up, pulled the hat off my head and after laughing to my brother in encouragement, I walked to the Gryffindor table. Everyone over there was standing, clapping and whistling. I didn't really care at the moment. I didn't want to miss my brothers sorting.

The Sorting Hat took a long time with Harry as well. I thought it they were having a similar argument, because I could almost hear Harry thinking: _'Not Slytherin, not Slytherin.'_

Eventually, the hat shouted: 'GRYFFINDOR!'

I was clapping and grinned at Harry when he ran to me and embraced me. All around us people were screaming: 'WE GOT BOTH POTTERS! WE GOT THEM BOTH!'

Eventually, the clapping, laughing and whistling didn't seem to diminish, so a man I recognised as Albus Dumbledore sent some loud bangs into the air and quiet returned to the hall, though it was only gradually. When we shook the hands of the people sitting closest to us (our year mates that had been sorted into Gryffindor, the Weasley children I recognised from the platform and, of course, Mila) we sat down as the next name was called.

Next up was Luke, who was sorted into Gryffindor as well after a short debate with the sorting hat.

A boy named Dean Thomas was also sorted into Gryffindor and a girl named Lisa Turpin became a Ravenclaw.

Than Ron was called. He looked extremely nervous, but when the Sorting Hat shouted 'GRYFFINDOR!' he relaxed and came over to us. All his brothers, Luke, Mila, Harry and I congratulated him.

Only two people had to be sorted now, Griselda Winter and Blaise Zabini and both of them ended up in Slytherin.

When the Sorting Ceremony was over, Professor McGonagall took the stool and hat away and sat down. Albus Dumbledore stood up and beamed at all of us, his arms opened as if nothing would have pleased him more than to see all of us there.

'Welcome,' he started, 'to another year at Hogwarts! Now, before the begin our start-of-the-year feast, I have a few words to say. Here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you.'

And he sat back down. Everybody clapped and cheered.

'Is he a bit mad?' I heard Harry say.

'Mad?' the eldest of the Weasley boys, whose name was Percy, replied. 'He's a genius! Best wizard in the world, but I guess he is a bit mad, yes. Potatoes?'

Wow. While I had been listening to Harry and Percy, the plates were now piled with food. I had never seen so much food in my life. There was more than enough for everyone at the table, so I decided to pile as much as I could on my plate and started to eat.

'Well, hello.' Most of the first years were too shocked to react, because suddenly we were faced with something I could only describe as a ghost. 'The new first years, I assume? Hopefully you will enjoy Hogwarts. I'm Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington, resident ghost at Gryffindor Tower.'

So I was right, he was a ghost.

'I know you!' Ron said suddenly. 'You're Nearly Headless Nick!'

'I prefer Sir Nicholas, if you don't mind.' The ghost said.

'How can you be nearly headless?' Hermione asked, though I thought that was quite obvious.

The ghost decided to show how, so he swung his head off his neck and in hung from his shoulder by a small amount of flesh. Most people looked away, disgusted, including me.

After he swung his head on his neck again he coughed and said, 'So, new Gryffindors! I hope you're going to help us win the house championship this year? Slytherins have got the cup six years in a row now! The Bloody Baron is becoming more unbearable each year! He's the Slytherin ghost.' We all looked at the Slytherin table to see a ghost sitting next to Malfoy, who didn't look too pleased with the seating arrangements. The ghost was covered in blood, so it was understandable, but it was still good to see Malfoy that uncomfortable.

'How did he get covered in blood?' Seamus asked with great interest.

'Never asked him.' Nick replied.

When everyone had eaten as much as they could, the remains of the food faded from the plates, leaving them sparkling clean as before.

A moment later the deserts appeared. Ice cream in every flavour, apple pies, treacle tarts, chocolate éclairs and much, much more.

As everyone started eating the deserts, the talk shifted to the families of students.

'I'm half-and-half.' Seamus said. 'Me dad's a Muggle. Mom didn't tell him she was a witch until they were married, so it was kind of a nasty shock when he found out.'

Everyone laughed at that statement.

'What about you, Neville?' Ron said.

'Well, my gran brought me up and she's a witch,' Neville started, 'but my family thought I was all-Muggle for ages. My Great Uncle Algie kept trying to catch me off my guard and force some magic out of me – he pushed me off the end of Blackpool pier once, I nearly drowned – but nothing happened until I was eight. Great Uncle Algie came round for dinner, and he was hanging me out of an upstairs window by the ankles when my Great Auntie Enid offered him a meringue and he accidentally let go. But I bounced – all the way down the garden and into the road. They were all really pleased, Gran was crying, she was so happy. And you should have seen their faces when I got in here – they thought I might not be magic enough to come, you see. Great Uncle Algie was so pleased he bought me my toad.'

On my other side, Harry was listening to Percy Weasley and Hermione, who were talking about lessons.

'I do hope they start right away, there's so much to learn, I'm particularly interested in Transfiguration, you know, turning something into something else. Of course, I read it's very difficult, but I still hope –'

'You'll be starting small, just turning matches into needles and such.' Percy told Hermione.

'Still, it sounds difficult. I hope I can do it.'

'Well, if you practice enough, you shouldn't have a problem.'

That conversation started to get more boring by the minute, so I decided not to listen to it anymore. I was starting to feel sleepy and looked at the High Table again. Hagrid was drinking from his goblet, a very small professor was eating more than I would have thought possible for someone his size, Professor McGonagall was talking to Professor Dumbledore and Professor Quirrell, in his utterly absurd turban, was talking to a teacher with greasy black hair, a hooked nose and sallow skin. He didn't look particularly threatening, but didn't look too friendly either.

It happened very suddenly. The two professors turned around a bit. The greasy haired professor looked at Harry and me, while professor Quirrell had the back of his head towards us. My scar started to burn and both Harry and I said 'Ouch!' at the same time and clutched our scars.

I didn't know if there was a connection, but I did know it happened at exactly the same moment that Professor Quirrell twisted his head a bit and the greasy black-haired professor looked over his shoulder directly to us.

'What is it?' Percy asked, concerned.

'Nothing.' Harry and I both said.

'Who is that teacher talking to Professor Quirrell?' Harry asked Percy.

'Oh, that's Professor Snape. He teaches Potions, but everyone knows he wants Quirrell's job. Knows an awful lot about the Dark Arts too.'

Harry looked at Professor Snape with suspicion, but I wasn't so sure if it had been Snape. It looked that way, but something I had learned was to not always go for an obvious target, but consider other options as well.

When the deserts disappeared, Professor Dumbledore stood up once again. The hall fell silent.

'Now, just a few more words before we get our well-deserved rest. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you. First years should know it's forbidden for all pupils to enter the forest on the grounds. A few older students should remember that as well.' He looked straight at the Weasley Twins when he said that, and both of them started to smile. 'I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, our caretaker, to remind you all that no magic is to be used between classes in the corridors. Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch. And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds for everyone who does not wish to die a painful death.'

'He's not serious, is he?' Harry asked Percy.

'Must be.' Percy answered. 'He never kids about things like that. It's odd, though, because he usually gives us a reason why something is forbidden. The forest if full of dangerous creatures, everyone knows that. I just thought he would at least have told us prefects.'

'And now, bedtime. Off you trot!'

The Gryffindor first years followed Percy through the chattering crowds, out of the great hall and up the marble staircase. Everyone was sleepy and most didn't really seem to see where we were going. I noticed all the portraits we passed were moving and the people were speaking. I wasn't too surprised anymore, after everything I'd seen today and frankly I was too tired to even care. Percy led us though some doorways hidden behind sliding panels and tapestries. We climbed more staircases, yawning and dragging our feet.

Suddenly, we came to a halt. I saw a ghost with a bundle of walking sticks floating in midair ahead of us, and as Percy took a step toward it, the ghost started to throw them at him.

'Peeves,' Percy said. 'a poltergeist.' He raised his voice, 'Peeves, stop that! Or do you want me to tell the Bloody Baron what you've been up too?'

The ghost looked startled, dropped the walking sticks on Neville's head and vanished.

'You will want to watch out for Peeves.' Percy said as we set off again. 'The Bloody Baron is the only one who can control him. He won't even listen to us prefects. Here we are.'

We stood still in front of a portrait of a very fat woman in a pink silk dress.

'Password? She asked.

'Caput Draconis.' Percy replied.

The portrait swung forward to reveal a round hole in the wall. We all scrambled through it and found ourselves in a cozy, round room full of squashy armchairs. Apparently, this was the Gryffindor common room.

The boys went through one door to their dormitories, we (the girls) went through another to ours. I noticed we were in one of the many towers and I noticed the rooms were separated by year. I went into the first year room and Mila, Hermione, Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown were already there. So were our trunks.

We talked a bit and eventually went to sleep. I thought my dorm mates were ok. I liked Mila, obviously, and though Hermione was a bossy know-it-all, I thought we might become friends in the future. Parvati and Lavender weren't incredibly smart and liked to talk about boys and clothes, kind of girly-girls. I didn't really feel the need to become friends with either of them, but I didn't feel the need to antagonize them either.

All in all, I thought this was a good start of a new life.

**Well, everyone, hope you enjoyed the chapter. Review please! I would really like to know what you guys think!**

**Sorry I haven****'****t updated in so long! There was a problem with the Wifi, but I did manage to write a couple more chapters. I will try to update every Friday, but I can****'****t promise I will during more busy periods in my studies. This one was published today because for the next couple of days, I won****'****t have a chance to update any more **

**Also, next time I update I will also update the first few chapters again, with a few changes in the lay-out. Only one aspect of the story has been changed. I replaced Amber****'****s male Snowy owl (Ruffles) with a female Eagle owl, now called Athena (because I simply ****love**** Greek mythology).**


	6. What the hell is your deal, Snape?

**Disclaimer: I checked this morning, and unfortunately, my name still isn****'****t J.K. Rowling. Thus, I do not own Harry Potter.**

**Chapter 6: What the hell is your deal, Snape?**

* * *

The next morning Mila and I got up, dressed and went down to the common room to see Harry, Ron and Luke waiting for us.

We went down to the Great Hall, which was quite a task, considering we barely paid any attention when we walked up here last night. We were just too tired. As it turned out, when we combined our memories, we were able to walk to breakfast.

Not a lot of people were up yet so when we got to the Great Hall, we could eat in relative peace and quiet. After a while, though, more people came in and I heard more and more whispering. I had the uncomfortable feeling the whispers were about me and Harry, as people looked at us all the time.

The whispering continued as we tried to find our way to class and everyone wanted to look at us. It was getting more and more annoying, because they stopped us from going to class.

It was really easy to get lost in the castle. Hogwarts had a hundred and forty-two staircases: wide, sweeping ones; narrow, rickety ones; some that led somewhere different on a Friday; some with a vanishing step halfway up that you had to remember to jump.

Then there were doors that wouldn't open unless you asked politely, or tickled them in exactly the right place, and doors that weren't really doors at all, but solid walls pretending to be doors. It was also very hard to remember where anything was, because it all seemed to move around a lot.

The people in the portraits kept going to visit each other, and Harry was sure the coats of armour could walk. The ghosts didn't help, either. It was always a nasty shock when one of them glided suddenly through a door you were trying to open.

Nearly Headless Nick was always happy to point new Gryffindors in the right direction, but Peeves the Poltergeist was worth two locked doors and a trick staircase if you met him when you were late for class. He would drop wastepaper baskets on your head, pull rugs from under your feet, pelt you with bits of chalk, or sneak up behind you, invisible, grab your nose, and screech, 'GOT YOUR CONK!'

Even worse was the caretaker, Argus Filch. He owned a cat, Mrs. Norris, a scrawny dust-coloured creature with bulging, lamp-like eyes, just like Filch's. If you broke a rule in front of her, she'd whisk off for Filch, who would appear two seconds later. Filch knew the secret passageways better than anyone, though the Weasley Twins were probably an exception, and could pop up as suddenly as any ghost. Everyone hated Filch and the secret ambition of most of them was to give Mrs. Norris a good kick.

Once you had managed to find the classes, you had to follow them as well. Every Wednesday at midnight we had to study the night sky though telescopes and learn the names of different stars and the movement of the planets.

Three times a week we went to the greenhouses behind the castle for Herbology. A dumpy little witch called Professor Sprout taught that class, in which we learned to take care of the strange plants and fungi and found out what they were used for.

The most boring class was History of Magic, the only class taught by a ghost. Professor Binns had been very old when he had fallen asleep in front of the staff room fire and got up the next morning to teach. However, he had left his body behind. Binns droned on and on, while scribbling down names and dates. Barely anyone was able to follow it (except for Hermione, of course.) and I had trouble concentrating as well. I was lucky enough to be able to remember at least some of what he said and I was able to write it down. Thank god for the book, or no one would pass.

Professor Flitwick was the Charms teacher. He was a tiny wizard who had to stand on a pile of books to see over the desk.

Professor McGonagall was totally different. She was strict and clever, and gave us a talking-to the moment we sat down about how Transfiguration was one of the most complex and dangerous kinds of magic and how anyone messing around in her classroom could leave and not come back. She proceeded by changing her desk into a pig and back again. She than gave some complex notes and we were given a match which we had to change into a needle. Hermione did it after only three tries. It took me seven, but I managed to do it. As Hermione and I were the only ones who managed to change the match, we were both given 10 house points.

Everyone had really been looking forward to Defence Against the Dark Arts, but that class was a joke. Professor Quirrell was afraid of his own shadow, the classroom smelled strongly of garlic (probably to ward of vampires) and rumours said even his turban was stuffed full with garlic. I had read the books and decided we weren't going to learn much in that class, so I would study on my own, because the books looked like it was going to be a fun subject.

On Friday we started with a double potions, with the Slytherins.

'Snape's the head of Slytherin house.' Ron told us. 'Everyone sais he always favours them. I guess we'll see if that's true.'

'I wish McGonagall favoured us.' Harry replied.

Even though McGonagall was the head of Gryffindor House, she was equally strict with every student and gave us a huge pile of homework to do.

The Potions lessons took place in the dungeons. It was colder there than in the main castle, but that was to be expected. Each table held two people in a row, so Harry sat next to Ron, and even though I wanted to sit next to Mila, I felt sorry for Neville, because I could see Luke didn't want to sit next to him. So I told Luke to sit next to Mila and sat next to Neville myself, behind Harry and Ron.

Snape entered and walked to the front of the classroom where he turned to face us. He had, just like Professor McGonagall, the gift of keeping a class silent without effort. No one even thought about talking when he glared at everyone, especially the Gryffindor half.

'You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion making.' He began. 'As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses... I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death – if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach.'

Hermione sat on the edge of her chair, looking a little too eager to prove she wasn't a dunderhead, if you ask me.

A small and humourless smile formed itself on his face.

'So, I see we have both Potters here today. Our new celebrities.' He paused for a moment before continuing. 'Mr. Potter! What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?'  
Harry shook his head. He didn't know. Why didn't he read _all_ of his books during the summer? It clearly said, in the potions book we had to buy, that is was the Draught of Living Death. Hermione raised her hand eagerly. What a surprise.

'I don't know sir.' Harry said.

'Let's try again, shall we? Where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?'

Harry didn't know this one either. Hermione was now standing with her hand in the air. Well, Harry, it's your own fault, I thought. You should at least have tried to read some books.

'I don't know, sir.' Harry said again.

'Well, Potter, last chance. What is the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?'

Again, Harry didn't know. It's the same plant, seriously, what did my brother do the last month at Privet Drive? He was up in his room most of the time, but barely even opened his books.

'I don't know, sir.'

'Well, clearly fame isn't everything, is it, Potter?'

Hermione now bounced up and down trying to attract Snape's attention. Didn't she get the hint? Snape was not gonna ask her. He was too busy humiliating Harry and I had the idea I was next. After all, he apparently hated Harry and I was his sister.

'I think Hermione knows, though. Why don't you ask her?'

Oh, god, Harry! Why did you have to provoke Snape like that? A few people laughed, but as I had thought, Snape only got angrier.

'Sit down, you silly girl!' he snapped at Hermione, who was shocked and sat down.

'Now, miss Potter, let's see if you're a bit smarter than your brother.'

Exactly as I had expected. I was looking forward to showing the guy up. No one talks to my brother like that without payback.

'What do I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?'

'The Draught of Living Death.'

I replied without flinching. Snape looked shocked for a second, but continued.

'Where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?'

'It's a stone taken from the stomach of a goat. It will save you from most poisons.'

'What is the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?'

'There're the same thing. It's also known as aconite. '

What I saw next shocked me more than anything else. I had expected Snape to be furious, but I saw an expression of sadness, mixed with anger and something else. Melancholy? It was an expression I had never seen before.

Suddenly, he turned around again and said: 'Ten points from Gryffindor for your cheek, Potter.'

Next we had to make a cure for boils. It wasn't really that hard, but I discovered Neville had no talent for potion making at all, he was even worse because he was obviously scared out of his mind by Snape. Fortunately we could work in pairs. I made the entire potion, while explaining everything I did to Neville, making sure he understood. We were finished about ten minutes before the lesson was done. Snape hadn't looked at me the entire time and even when he started checking the potions, he wouldn't look at me. Hermione, who had been working alone, and Neville and I were the only ones who managed to make the potion correctly.

That afternoon I managed to borrow Seamus's Daily Prophet because I was curious. He was finished with it anyway, so it was no problem. My eye was caught by a front page article:

_GRINGOTTS BREAK-IN LATEST_

_Investigations continue into the break-in at Gringotts on 31 July, widely believed to be the work of_

_Dark wizards or witches unknown. Gringotts goblins today insisted that nothing had been taken. The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied the same day. 'But we're not telling you what was in there, so keep your noses out if you know what's good for you.' said a Gringotts spokesgoblin this afternoon._

'Harry, look! A break-in at Gringotts, at our birthday. Do you think it could be the package Hagrid got that day? You know, the one for Dumbledore.'

I whispered, so no one would hear me except for Harry, Ron, Luke and Mila, who were sitting with me.

'Yeah, I guess it could be. I wonder why they don't know who did it, though. The thief should have been caught.'

That night I was trying to get to sleep, but I couldn't, for two reasons.

One, I was thinking about the Gringotts break-in. Who could have done it? Why weren't they caught? Why did they risk getting caught in the first place? What was so important about the small package?

And two, I couldn't help but wonder what had been up with Snape. He had looked at me like he was conflicted. Like he didn't know whether to hate or like me. Question was, why was he conflicted and why did he hate Harry, and possibly me, more than any other Gryffindor, after just our first day. He had hated Harry even before Harry had failed to answer the questions. What was up with that guy?

* * *

**So, another chapter done. Hope you liked it, even though it was kind of short…**

**Review please! I really want to know what you guys think!**


	7. The murderous monster in the corridor

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, and I never will!**

**Chapter 7: The murderous monster in the corridor **

'I am really starting to hate that guy!' Harry told me, extremely frustrated, obviously, after we had yet another run-in with Malfoy and his two goons. 'I never thought I could hate anyone as much as I hated Dudley, but that was before I met that ass.'

Unfortunately for Harry, I had to disagree with him. I'd never hated anyone, not even Dudley. Yes, I severely disliked him, but I never _hated_ him. I didn't hate Malfoy either. He was extremely annoying, but as long as he didn't actually harm my brother or friends, I could live with that. It didn't change the fact I really wanted to get him back for making our lives as difficult as possible, though. I really wanted to wipe that stupid smug grin off his arrogant face, sooner rather than later.

Until now, we only had Potions with the Slytherins, so we didn't have to put up with them much. However, this morning we had seen a notice pinned up in the common room. Flying lessons were starting on Thursday – and Gryffindor and Slytherin would be learning this together.

The run-in we'd had just now was about that. Malfoy walked past us bragging about his skills on a broom and telling us all how we would fail miserably and how he and the other Slytherins would be running underneath us and carrying a mattress for us to fall on.

'Typical.' Harry said darkly when we were eating breakfast. 'Just what I always wanted. To make a fool of myself on a broomstick in front of Malfoy.'

I knew Harry had wanted to learn to fly more than anything else.

'You're not going to make a fool of yourself.' I said. 'Just have faith and you'll be surprised at what you can do.'

'Yes! Besides, I know Malfoy's been bragging to everyone about his skills on a broomstick and how good he is at Quidditch, but I bet it's all just talk.' Ron added.

This seemed to comfort Harry a bit, but not much.

I had to admit, I was a bit nervous too. I didn't really care about making a fool of myself, but I knew if I did that in front of Malfoy, I would never hear the end of it.

Anyway, Malfoy wasn't the only one who had been talking about his skills on a broomstick. Seamus Finnigan had, according to himself, spent most of his childhood zooming around the countryside on his broomstick. Ron would also tell about the time he'd almost hit a hang glider on Charlie's old broom to everyone who would listen.

Everyone from wizarding families talked about Quidditch constantly. Ron had already had a big argument with Dean Thomas, who shared their dormitory, about soccer. Ron couldn't see what was exciting about a game with only one ball where no one was allowed to fly. Harry had caught Ron prodding Dean's poster of West Ham soccer team, trying to make the players move.

Neville had never been on a broomstick in his life, because his grandmother had never let him near one. Privately, I felt she'd had good reason, because Neville managed to have an extraordinary number of accidents even with both feet on the ground.

Hermione was almost as nervous about flying as Neville was. This was something you couldn't learn by heart out of a book – not that she hadn't tried. At breakfast on Thursday she bored us with all with flying tips she'd gotten out of a library book called Quidditch Through the Ages.

Neville hang on to her every word, desperately hoping for something that would help him stay on his broom long enough to return to the ground in one piece. When the mail arrived, I was glad it stopped Hermione's lecture.

Harry and I hadn't gotten any mail. It's not like we were expecting to, but Malfoy kept rubbing in we didn't get any, while he got packages of sweets from home just about every day. It wasn't too annoying, though. I had other problems, like figuring out what the hell was up with Snape and whether he liked or hated me. And why he hated Harry, of course.

Meanwhile, a barn owl brought Neville a small package from his grandmother. He opened it excitedly and showed them a glass ball the size of a large marble, which seemed to be full of white smoke.

'It's a Remembrall!' he explained. 'Gran knows I forget things – this tells you if there's something

you've forgotten to do. Look, you hold it tight like this and if it turns red – oh...' His face fell, because the Remembrall had suddenly glowed scarlet, 'You've forgotten something...'

Neville was trying to remember what he'd forgotten when Draco Malfoy, who was passing the

Gryffindor table, snatched the Remembrall out of his hand.

Harry and Ron jumped to their feet, apparently hoping for a reason to fight Malfoy. Fortunately, Professor McGonagall was there in a flash. She really had a talent for spotting trouble.

'What's going on here?'

'Malfoy's got my Remembrall, Professor.'

Malfoy immediately put the Remembrall down again. 'Just looking.' he said before walking away, Crabbe and Goyle on his heels.

That afternoon, at three-thirty, I with all the other Gryffindors hurried down the front steps onto the grounds for our first flying lesson. It was a clear, breezy day and the grass rippled under our feet as we marched down the sloping lawns toward a smooth, flat lawn on the opposite side of the grounds to the forbidden forest, whose trees were swaying darkly in the distance.

The Slytherins were already there and so were twenty broomsticks lying in neat lines on the ground. The teacher, Madam Hooch, arrived shortly after us. She had short, gray hair and yellow eyes like a hawk.

'Well, what are you waiting for?' she said. 'Everyone stand by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up!' I glanced down at my broom. It was old, the twigs stuck out at odd angles and the rest of the broom had definitely been used more than enough times. All the other brooms looked exactly the same.

'Stick out your right hand over the broom and say 'UP!'' Madam Hooch continued.

My broom jumped to my hand at once and I noticed Harry's and Malfoy's did the same thing. Hermione's broom just rolled over on the ground and Neville's hadn't moved at all. After the second try, Luke's broom jumped up as well. Ron's broom flew up and hit him square in the face. Harry, Luke, Mila and I all laughed.

When Madam Hooch showed us how we should mount our brooms without sliding off the end and walked down the rows correcting our grips. I was delighted to hear Malfoy had been doing it wrong for years.

'Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard. Keep your brooms steady, hover for a moment a few feet above the ground and come straight back down by leaning forward slightly. Three – two –'

Neville was too nervous and pushed off hard before the whistle had touched Madam Hooch's lips.

'Come back, boy!' she shouted, but Neville seemed to have lost control of the broom.

It rose higher and higher. Neville streamed and finally fell down on the grass. When he touched the ground, we heard a nasty, sickening crack. The broomstick fell down to the ground a few feet to the right.

'A broken wrist.' Madam Hooch muttered. 'Come on, boy. It's all right. Up you get.' She turned to the rest of us. 'No one is to move until I get back from the hospital wing. Leave those brooms where they are. If any of you fly while I'm gone, you'll be out of Hogwarts before you can say 'Quidditch.' Come on, dear. Let's go.'

When Neville and Madam Hooch were out of sight, Malfoy burst into laughter. 'Did you see his face?' He picked something up: the Remembrall. 'Looks like Longbottom forgot to fall on his fat ass!'

'Give it here, Malfoy!' Harry said.

Malfoy smiled nastily. 'No, I think I will leave it somewhere for Longbottom to find. How about – on the roof?'

'Give it back!'

'No, Potter. If you want it, come and get it.'

With those words, Malfoy mounted his broom, kicked off and hovered about twenty feet above the grass. Well, at least Malfoy didn't lie about his flying skills. He was good. Harry started to mount his broom.

'Harry, knock it off! You're going to get expelled.' Hermione told him, but Harry didn't listen. He mounted his broom and kicked of hard.

I could see he was good. Harry had never learned how to fly, but his balance was perfect. If it was up to me, I'd say he was a natural. Harry faced Malfoy in midair.

'Give it here, Malfoy, or I'll knock you off your broom!'

'Oh, yeah?'

Malfoy was thinking. I could see he was worried and without his goons to protect him he was a lot less brave.

Harry grasped the broom tightly and shot forward like a javelin. Malfoy got away just in time and Harry made a sharp turn and kept the broom steady.

I saw Malfoy was really worried now, so he threw the Remembrall away as far as he could.

When Harry sped after it, I saw Malfoy get his wand from his robes. I didn't know what he was about to do, but I wasn't going to take any chances. I took the broom, mounted it and flew towards Malfoy. 'Hey, Malfoy, leave my brother alone!'

Malfoy put his wand away when he saw me coming and I positioned myself behind him, so I could see both him and my brother.

Harry was gathering speed and it looked like he was going to crash into the wall. I didn't see the Remembrall, but Harry certainly did.

Suddenly he stopped, just before he hit the wall. He looked like he'd just ran a marathon and won. He gently got back to the ground and I did the same thing. Malfoy was already standing on the ground.

'Hey, Amber, I got it!' Harry said as we touched down, showing me the Remembrall.

'HARRY POTTER! AMBER POTTER!'

Oh, god. Professor McGonagall came outside and looked shocked.

'Never – in all my time at Hogwarts –'

'It wasn't their fault, Professor –'

'Be quiet, miss Patil.'

'But Professor, Malfoy –'

'Mr. Weasley, this is not your business. Potter, both of you, follow me. Now.'

Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle looked triumphant, laughing while we were following Professor McGonagall. Were we going to be expelled? I guessed so. I just hoped we would get time to at least explain things and get Malfoy expelled as well. Correction, I was going to make sure we would get the chance to explain things. Malfoy would not get away with this.

We were walking through several corridors. Harry looked miserable. I could see he felt horrible, we had only lasted a few weeks here. I nudged his arm a bit to cheer him up, but it didn't really work. All that made me feel better was the knowledge that I would get Malfoy expelled as well and I really wanted to see his face when _that_ happened.

When we finally stopped I recognised the classroom. It was Quirrell's. Professor McGonagall opened the door and asked if she could borrow Wood for a second.

'Is she going to beat us or something?' Harry whispered.

'I'm sure she won't. I guess it's a person.' I answered. 'After all, she always calls all student's by their last name.'

As it turned out, Wood was a burly fifth-year who looked very confused.

'Harry, Amber, this is Oliver Wood. He is the Gryffindor Quidditch captain. Wood, I have found you a seeker.'

She pointed at Harry. Wow, he wouldn't get expelled. I might have a chance to stay as well. I knew Harry would never allow me to get expelled without going with me.

'Are you serious, Professor?'

'Absolutely. The boy is a natural! Was that your first time on a broomstick, Potter?'

'Eh, yes, Professor.'

Harry looked a bit better now he realised he wouldn't get expelled.

'He caught that thing in his hand when it was about to crash into the wall and didn't get a scratch! Charlie Weasley might not even have been able to do that. I will see if we can bend the first-year rule.'

Wood looked relieved, as if Harry and Professor McGonagall had just saved his life.

'Now, miss Potter, what were you doing up in the air?'

'Well, Professor, when Harry went after the Remembrall, Malfoy drew his wand and I wanted to stop him from doing anything to Harry.'

'Well, in that case, neither of you will get punished for this. Although I want to tell you I won't be so lenient if this happens again and neither will the other professors.'

'So, what happened? You obviously didn't get expelled.' Ron asked us as he gulped down dinner. Jeez, that boy could eat. It wasn't like his brothers were any better, though.

'Well, I am the new Gryffindor seeker, apparently. Professor McGonagall is going to get me a broom and Wood will explain the rules tonight. Amber didn't get punished either, because all she did was protecting me from Malfoy.'

'What? Seeker? But – first years never play for the house teams. You must be the youngest player in at least a century!'

'I know. Wood told us. And, she told Amber she should try out for the team as soon as a position opened, even though that probably won't be for a few years.' Harry replied.

'Harry, you know, Fred and George are on the team as well! Oh, look, there they are and it looks like they already know.' Luke told us.

'Hey, Harry, well done. Wood just told us you are the seeker. Told us you were a natural. He is sure we will win the Quidditch cup this year, which hasn't happened since Charlie left. We're the team beaters, by the way. But, we have to go, Lee Jordan said he found a new passageway, but I'm sure it's just the one behind the statue of Gregory the Smarmy we found in our first week. See you guys later!'

Unfortunately, Malfoy chose that moment to show his arrogant, annoying face, flanked by his ugly goons Crabbe and Goyle.

'Having your last meals, Potters?' he sneered at us.

'Well, well, seems like you're a whole lot braver with both feet on the ground and both your goons with you. How is it going with you two, by the way? Feeling better in each others company, I guess. Makes all of you look less ugly.' I retorted.

It wasn't entirely true, though. Malfoy, for all his faults, wasn't ugly. Merely unpleasant to look at because of his arrogant face and annoying attitude. Not ugly.

Malfoy chose to ignore my last comment and instead chose to challenge my first.

'I can take all of you on my own. Tonight if you wish, Potter.'

He directed that comment at my brother, apparently he hated Harry more than me. 'A wizard's duel. Just wands, no contact. At midnight in the trophy room. Or are you to scared, Potter?'

'Scared, Malfoy? You wish.' Harry said with narrowed eyes.

'Good. Crabbe's my second. Who is yours?'

'I am.' Ron suddenly spoke up. I had no idea what a second was, but it couldn't be anything good.

'We'll meet you there.' Malfoy said as he turned around and walked away.

'What in the world is a wizard's duel and what does it mean – you're my second?'

'Well, a second takes over if you die. But don't worry, people only die in a proper duel between real wizard's. We've only been here a few weeks. You can't kill each other yet.' Luke told Harry. 'I bet he even expected you to refuse. He's not as brave as he likes to say he is.'

'I noticed.' I said, while thinking about Malfoy taking out his wand when Harry was chasing after the Remembrall.

'Excuse me.' Hermione Granger had arrived once again. She must have heard everything, there was no other reason she would be here at this particular time. It wasn't as if she had any real friends. I felt kind of sorry for her, but it was kind of her own fault. Not just the whole I-know-everything attitude, also the bossiness and the fact that she kept everyone at a distance. She didn't really have any social skills yet. I wanted to at least speak to her on occasion and be friendly with her, but she was making that extremely difficult. After a few weeks, I just gave up on it. The opportunity for that would arrive eventually, as her social skills and need for a friend made themselves clear.

'Excuse me! I'm eating here!' Of course Ron only thought about his stomach.

'I couldn't help but hear what you and Malfoy were saying –'

'Bet you could.' Ron muttered.

'– and it's an incredibly stupid idea to go walking around the corridors at night. If you get caught, you'll lose points at best and get expelled at worst! It's really petty and selfish of you.'

'Well, it's not really any of your business, is it?' Harry said.

'Good-bye.' Ron added.

Those two definitely needed a lesson in diplomacy.

At midnight, Mila and I got up quietly and left the girls dorm. We met up with the boys in the common room, but when we stepped though the portrait, we heard a very angry Hermione come out of the common room behind us.

'And where do you think you're all off to? Amber, I expected better of you at least. You should give them the correct example.'

'And what exactly made you think I would do that?'

'Well, after me, you're the best in class. I mean, you must have some sense, because you read all books over break as well and you're clever. Why not apply that sense to following the rules as well?'

'Well, first, in order to actually get to my books, I had to break several of my aunt and uncle's rules. Second, I always wanted to know everything and I really don't care for a lot of rules if I don't feel like following them.' I shrugged.

'Arg!' Hermione was obviously frustrated right now. Serves her right. This is none of her business, so she should stay out of it.

'Besides,' I told her, 'it's a chance to shut Malfoy up! What person in their right mind would want to miss that?'

'I would. It's childish, petty and selfish. You'll get both yourselves and Gryffindor in trouble.'

'Well, if you don't want to get in trouble, I'd suggest you leave us and get back inside now. We're going, and nothing you say can change that.' With that I turned around and walked away.

'Fine!' Hermione called after me.

'Oh, no!'

I turned around and saw Hermione stand in front of the portrait of the Fat Lady. It was empty.

'Fine. I'll come with you. At least I can try to minimise the damage for Gryffindor this way. Besides, I'm not going to stand there waiting for Filch to catch me.'

We were lucky. We didn't come across either Filch, Mrs. Norris or Peeves. We walked to the trophy room. Malfoy and Crabbe weren't there yet. The crystal trophy cases glimmered in the moonlight. Suddenly, I heard footsteps and a voice. It wasn't Malfoy. It was Filch, talking to his cat.

'He said they would be here. Probably hiding.' I was the first to react. I pushed everyone to the door and we were out of the room just before Filch entered. He did see our movement, though. We madly ran through the corridors. I suddenly thought of the forbidden corridor and although I probably shouldn't have, I led everyone to the corridor. I was seriously curious what was in there.

The door was locked. I reflected this was a really stupid idea, when Hermione pushed us aside and said, 'Alohomora!'

The lock opened and the door swung open.

We ran through it and Filch didn't even check.

'He thinks this door is locked. Thank god.' Mila sighed.

'And he has a good reason to.' I said. Oh, jeez. This had been a _really_ bad idea. We were now in an enclosed space with a giant, three-headed dog that was standing on – something. I couldn't see what it was, though, because the moment I made the observation, the dog had completely woken up and was glaring at us.

All of us screamed and got out though the door. We just made it. We ran through the corridors back to the common room entrance. Thank god the Fat Lady was back.

'Pig snout!' I yelled. She looked at us, but still the portrait swung open.

When we were in the common room again we all collapsed into the chairs.

'Who keeps a bloody three-headed dog in a school?' Luke demanded.

'Didn't any of you see what it was standing on?' Hermione said. I answered, 'I saw it was standing on something. Didn't get the chance to see what it was, though.'

'It was a trapdoor. It's obviously guarding something.' She glared at us. 'I hope you're happy with yourselves, especially you, Amber. Now, if you don't mind, I am going to bed, before any of you come up with another clever idea to get us killed. Or worse – expelled.'

'She needs to sort out here priorities.' Ron answered and turned toward the boys dorm.

Everyone else went to bed, but Harry held me back for a moment.

'I noticed you were pretty particular of going to that corridor. You knew it was the forbidden corridor, didn't you?'

'I was just curious. I never imagined they'd have something like _that_ up there!'

'I know. I wasn't blaming you or anything. I just wanted to know.'

'Well, I'm blaming myself. What if someone died! It would have been my fault.'

'No, it wouldn't have been. Like Luke said, who would have a three-headed dog in a school?'

'Thanks. I actually think Hermione was right, though. It looks like it's guarding something. Do you think it could be the package Hagrid picked up at Gringotts? The one someone probably broke into Gringotts for?'

'Yes, Amber, I think that's very, very likely.'

'Oh, god! Now I really want to know what's in that package!'

Harry grinned. 'Well, at least your curiosity didn't suffer from the experience we had tonight.'

'Shut up.' I bumped Harry's arm and we both went to our dorms.

I couldn't get to sleep for a long time, though. I kept wondering what was important enough for someone to hide in a school, guarded by a three-headed, murderous dog.

**Thanks to everyone who follows/favorited (I know, it's not a real verb, I made it up.) my story and the few people who reviewed. I want to tell everyone again, I love to hear what you think. Even if you think it's a stupid story, though in that case I would appreciate reasons and possible improvements.**

**Anyway, thanks to all of you and I hope all of you will stick with me to the end.**


	8. Who the HELL let a bloody TROLL in?

**Sorry I was a bit late with the update people, but here it is. Hope you'll enjoy the chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I don****'****t own Harry Potter. Never have, never will.**

**Chapter 8: Who the HELL let a bloody TROLL in?**

The next morning, when we walked to the Great Hall for breakfast, we discussed what could possibly be under the trapdoor. Hermione was still angry with us, so she wasn't speaking to us. I didn't really mind because she could be really bossy, but I did feel sorry for her. She didn't have any friends and I wasn't really in the mood to try and become hers.

When we entered the Great Hall, I saw, with great pleasure, that Malfoy couldn't believe his eyes when he saw we were still at Hogwarts.

'So, this package is either really valuable or really dangerous.' Luke summed up.

'Or both, of course.' I added and Luke nodded I was correct.

'But what object of about two inches long could be valuable or dangerous enough to need such heavy protection?' Harry asked.

'I think we need to get further clues. We might need to ask Hagrid some day.' Mila said.

'At least Hermione isn't talking to us any more. She can be a real menace.' Ron told us and I glared at him, though it wasn't like Ron noticed anything.

When the owls with the mail came in the next week, everyone's attention was caught at once by a long, thin package carried by six large screechy owls. Harry was, needless to say, extremely surprised when the package landed in front of him. He was about to open it when I pointed to a letter another owl had dropped on top of the package. Harry opened it, which was lucky, because it said:

DO NOT OPEN THE PARCEL AT THE TABLE. It contains your new Nimbus Two Thousand, but I don't want everyone knowing you got a broomstick, I would prefer you to be our secret weapon. Oliver Wood will meet you tonight on the Quidditch field at seven o'clock for your first training session.  
Professor McGonagall.

'Wow.' both Ron and Luke said when they read the note.

'A Nimbus Two Thousand. That is the best broom yet!'

We all stood up and went to the common room to unpack the broom.

'And I suppose you should thank Malfoy.' I said while everyone looked like I just admitted I kissed Malfoy.

'Well, if he hadn't stolen Neville's Remembrall, you wouldn't be on the team.'

We all laughed at that.

'Oh, so I suppose you think this is a reward for breaking the rules?' came an angry and bossy voice from just behind us.

Hermione looked disapprovingly at Harry's package.

'I thought you weren't speaking to us.' Ron said. 'Please don't stop now. It's nice and quiet now.'

Hermione walked away with her nose in the air, definitely trying to seem superior, but I saw the hurt in her eyes just before she turned around.

At Potions, Neville got in trouble once again.

'You need to add the Porcupine Quills _before_ you stir, Longbottom. And you need to stir clockwise, not counter clockwise.'

Snape's mood was just as bad as always. Still, I couldn't stop myself from defending Neville.

'Professor, perhaps if you would be nicer to him, he could learn a lot faster.'

'Miss Potter, you do not speak to a teacher like that. Five points from Gryffindor and don't do that again, or you'll get detention. And Longbottom, I will take ten points from Gryffindor for your incompetence.'

Snape turned around quickly and started checking essays. He barely paid any attention to us again, so like I did during the first Potions lesson, I explained to Neville what he had to do and why. He most certainly did a lot better now. I finished about ten minutes before the end of class and so did Neville. I spent that time thinking about the odd behaviour of Snape. He glared at Harry and me with contempt, but he still went soft on me, well, compared to the other Gryffindors. If any Gryffindor had talked back like I did, he would have taken ten points from Gryffindor, instead of five, and he would most certainly have given them detention right away, instead of a warning. I had no idea why he seemed to hate Harry and me and I most certainly didn't understand why he would go easy on me if he acted like he hated me.

Harry couldn't concentrate at all, so he made an even bigger mess of his potion than usual. Snape, obviously, subtracted ten points for that.

That night, Harry went to the Quidditch field. The rest of us sat down and started on our homework, but I finished before Ron, Luke and Mila could finish theirs. At first I just looked around the common room, until I saw Fred and George. They looked like they were up to something.

'Hey, guys, I'm just leaving for a bit.'

'Sure.' Mila said and both Ron and Luke nodded.

'Fred, George, you are acting very secretive.'

Both boys jumped when I started talking to them.

'Eh, no, we're not doing anything, really.' Fred told me, evasively.

'Oh, come on! I'm just curious. I promise I'm not going to tell anyone.'

They looked at me curiously and apparently decided I could be trusted.

'All right. We're working on magical jokes and sweets. It's just a concept, but we don't want anyone to find out yet. We are planning to open a shop, you see. Once we get out of Hogwarts.' George said.

'You want to open a shop?'

'Yes. We're going to use our time at Hogwarts to develop products and test them.'

Both of them grinned wickedly and so did I. I couldn't help but like them and the idea.

'Sounds great. If you need any help with ideas or such, you can always come to me.'

'Wow.' Fred said. 'Impressive, miss Potter.'

And with that they told me the ideas they'd already come up with.

I couldn't believe we'd already been here two months. It was so much better than Privet Drive and the lessons were a lot more fun too, now we'd mastered the basics. As a matter of fact, we could now start making objects fly in Charms class. We were divided into pairs. Harry was paired with Seamus Finnigan, Luke and Mila were partnered and I was partners with Neville. Unfortunately for Ron, his partner was Hermione. It was hard to tell who was angrier about this and they were both glaring at each other. She hadn't spoken to any of us after whole the broomstick-incident. I wondered who would explode first.

'Now, don't forget the nice wrist-movement we've been practicing!' squeaked Professor Flitwick. 'The swish-and-flick. Remember that. And don't forget to say: _Wingardium Leviosa_.'

Neville was extremely nervous, so instead of practicing, I helped him calm himself and we just looked around a bit to see how the others were doing. Harry and Seamus were swishing and flicking, but the feathers just stayed on the desktops. Seamus got impatient after a few minutes and started to prod his feather, which than exploded in his face. That was quite funny.

Neville and I started as well, but after two tries I heard Ron shouting '_Wingardium Leviosa_.' and he was waving his arms like a windmill.

'You're saying it wrong.' I heard Hermione snap.

Oh, god, this wasn't going to be pretty. Harry and I looked at each other. We both knew what was going to happen next.

'It's Wing-gar-dium Levi-o-sa, not Levio-sa and make the 'gar' nice and long.'

'You do it than, if you're so clever.'

Hermione rolled up her sleeves, sat up straight, swished and flicked her wand and said, 'Wingardium Leviosa.'

The feather rose off the desk and hovered in the air.

'Oh, well done!' Professor Flitwick said happily, 'Miss Granger's done it!'

Ron now looked ready to kill someone and didn't participate in the lesson again.

We tried a few more times until: 'Wingardium Leviosa.'

And my feather suddenly rose up into the air.

'Oh, well done, miss Potter!'

Hermione, though, just glared at me. Well, I wasn't trying to ruin her moment of glory. She should learn to live with the fact I was almost as good as her at everything.

When class was over, Ron was still in a very bad mood.

'It's not wonder she has no friends. No one can even stand her! She's a nightmare, honestly. I'm glad you showed her, though, Amber. I mean, she is just a bossy know-it-all.'

Someone pushed past us. I was shocked to see it was Hermione and even more shocked to see she was crying.

'Ehm, Ron, I think she heard you.' Harry said.

'So?' Ron answered. 'She must have noticed she doesn't have any friends.'

'That's no reason for you to be so awful to her.' I suddenly snapped.

'Amber, calm down. It's not that big a deal. Look, we will apologize to her when we see her in the common room tonight, all right?'

'Really, Harry? Did you forget I used to be bullied because I was the smartest in class? You're not going to see her tonight, and besides, you should apologize to her right now.'

'But –' Ron started.

I wouldn't hear of it, though. 'Fine, if you're not going to help her, I will.'

With that I walked away, asking if anyone had seen Hermione. After a while someone said she'd gone to the girls' bathroom, so I followed her.

I opened the door carefully so I wouldn't startle her. I could see one cubicle with a closed door and I could hear someone sobbing softly.

'Hermione?' I asked.

'Go away!'

'Hermione, listen. I'm sorry for what Ron said. I'm sure Ron is too. He's just too proud to admit it.'

'What does it matter. He's right. I'm a horrible person, so just go away.'

'Hermione, just come out of there or I'll knock the door down.'

After about a minute the door opened slowly and Hermione stepped out. I sat down and pulled her down next to me on the floor.

'Hermione. I want you to be quiet and just listen. If you still want me to leave when I finish, just say so and I will, but you have to hear me out first.'

It took a while for Hermione to answer, but finally she nodded.

'Thank you. Now, during primary school Harry and I used to be bullied because our cousin Dudley told everyone we were freaks. He hated us and because everyone was either friends with him, and thus exactly the same, or afraid of him, they hated us too. But being a 'freak' wasn't the only reason I was bullied. I was also bullied because I was always top of the class. They told me I was a snobby, stupid little know-it-all. Now, don't get me wrong, I didn't really care because I couldn't care less for those people, but it still wasn't fun. They tried to steal my homework, called me the teachers pet and sometimes it even got physical, in terms of being pushed to the ground. Point is, I know how you feel, Hermione. It might even be worse for you because I had Mila and Harry to lean on. You had no one until now. It wasn't my intention to show you up in charms, or any other class for that matter. I was just doing my best in those classes, like you were. I'm also sorry I didn't make a real effort to be your friend. I just kinda hoped you would become a little nicer to people after a while, but now I realise you act like this because you feel left out. No one has ever even made a real effort to be friends with you, right?'

Hermione stayed quiet for a while, probably processing what I just told her.

After a while, she told me: 'Yes. I've never been bullied, but no one ever wanted to be friends with me, so I decided I didn't need any friends. I thought it was either cleverness and good grades or friends. Than I met you and that proved me wrong. I guess I got a bit jealous. I'm sorry I was so mean to you with that three-headed dog.'

'It's fine. I'm sorry for how I acted too.'

'It's fine.'

We just sat there for a bit. We didn't talk, just sat there, enjoying our new friendship.

'I have an idea. How about we go to the Great Hall and eat something. I will even bully Ron into giving you an apology if you want me to.'

I grinned and Hermione laughed as well, while raising an eyebrow.

'I don't think anyone can bully Ron into apologizing if he doesn't want to.'

'Oh, really. Than you've never seen me work. I can put quite a lot of pressure on people, you know.'

'Sure, let's go. I would love to see you bully Ron into apologizing.'

We got up and walked out of the girls' bathroom, but couldn't go any further. There was a twelve foot tall troll blocking the hallway.

'Oh, crap.' I said.

The troll's skin was a dull, granite gray, its great lumpy body like a boulder with its small bald head perched on top like a coconut. It had short legs thick as tree trunks with flat, horny feet. The smell coming from it was incredible. It was holding a huge wooden club, which dragged along the floor because its arms were so long.

Hermione and I stood frozen, we couldn't think or act. Suddenly we heard footsteps coming our way and than Harry and Ron ran round the corner. The troll swung the club and Hermione and I could barely dodge it. It hit the wall though and the hallway was now full of rubble and dust.

'Confuse it!' Harry told Ron.

Both started to throw rubble at the troll. The troll turned around, looking stupid rather than furious.

'Oy, pea-brain!' Ron yelled.

The troll still looked stupid, but turned to Hermione and me again. I pulled both Hermione and myself upright. We all ran for our lives and the troll followed us. Hermione and I, unfortunately, had to run around the troll, so we couldn't get out of the way when the troll started to swing the club at us. Thank god Ron was there, though. He turned around, saw what was happening and thought faster than either Hermione or I could at the moment.

'_Wingardium Leviosa!_'

The troll lost his grasp on the club and it drifted upwards, until Ron dropped it right on it's head. That has _got_ to hurt. And it did. The troll lost consciousness and fell forward. All four of us stood there, shocked.

Hermione spoke first. 'Is it – dead?'

'I don't think so.' I said.

Suddenly we heard footsteps and suddenly Professor McGonagall, Professor Snape and Professor Quirrell came around the corner. Professor McGonagall looked both scared and pissed.

'What on earth were you doing?' said Professor McGonagall. We all looked at each other.'You're lucky you're alive. Why didn't you go to your dormitory, like you were supposed to?'

'It was me, Professor McGonagall. They were looking for me.' Hermione said in a small voice.

Harry and Ron looked at Hermione surprised and I caught Harry's eye.

'No, Professor, that's not what happened.' Harry said.

'It's true.' Ron said. 'It's my fault. I insulted Hermione. It wasn't my intention and by the way, I'm really sorry. But I insulted Hermione –'

'Ron and I insulted Hermione. Like Ron said, it wasn't our intention, but we did. Amber went after her to comfort her. When Ron and I heard about the troll, we realised Amber and Hermione didn't know about it, so we went after them, to warn them.'

'Harry,' Ron said, 'you didn't insult Hermione. I did.'

'I didn't stop you. That's just as bad. You were right, Amber, I should have said something.'

'Yeah, well, you can't know how painful some comments can get. You never experienced it yourself.'

'But I know how much it used to hurt you. I always comforted you, remember? I'm just as bad as the others.'

'No, Harry, you're not. They hurt me on purpose. Neither of you meant to hurt Hermione. It just happened. It's understandable.'

'Now, if you could all be quiet, this troll can wake up any moment and I would rather have this dealt with before that.' Professor McGonagall started. 'Mr. Weasley, Mr. Potter, I'm very disappointed in both of you for insulting Miss Granger, but I appreciate your courage when you tried to warn them and fight the troll. Five points will be taken from each of you. As for you, Miss Potter, you did the right thing by going after Miss Granger. Fifteen points will be awarded to you for loyalty to a friend. Now, if you could all go back to you dormitory, we have a troll to deal with.'

When we were out in the hallway, Ron said, 'So, you two going to thank us?'

Harry raised his eyebrow at him.

'What? Mind you, we did save them.'

'Mind you, they would not have needed saving if you hadn't insulted Hermione.'

'What are friends for?' Ron said.

Harry, Hermione and I had to laugh at that.

'So, where are Mila and Luke?' I asked, curious.

'Well,' Harry answered, 'we got separated when we were leaving the Great Hall, and we couldn't go looking for them if we wanted to warn you quickly.'

'Ah. Well, let's get back quickly, they will want to know what happened.' I said. 'You know, I actually think this is an amazing adventure, just like the three-headed dog. You can call me crazy, but I think it was amazing.' I smiled and quickened my pace, almost running back.

The others followed and after we explained everything to Mila and Luke, we went to bed. And from that day forward, Hermione was our friend and our circle had expanded to six people.


End file.
